THE ROMANCE OF 
THE RED TRIANGLE 



SIR ARTHUR K.YAPP. K.B.E 




7 



Y M C A 




Class 
Book. 






Copyrights 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 
SIR ARTHUR K. YAPP, K.B.E. 



THE ROMANCE 

OF THE 

RED TRIANGLE 

THE STORY OF THE COMING OF 
THE RED TRIANGLE AND THE 
SERVICE RENDERED BY THE 
Y. M. C. A. TO THE SAILORS AND 
SOLDIERS OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 



BY 

SIR ARTHUR K. YAPP, K.B.E. 



HODDER & STOUGHTON 

NEW YORK 

GEORGE H, DORAN COMPANY 






Copyright, 1918, 
By Arthur K. Yapp 



Printed in the United States of America 

DEC 18 1918 
©CI.A506940 



DEDICATION TO THE AMERICAN EDITION 



TO 
DR. JOHN R. MOTT, 
WHOSE CLEAR VISION AND BRILLIANT 
LEADERSHIP HAVE MEANT SO MUCH TO 
THE YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSO- 
CIATION THROUGHOUT THE WORLD. 



THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED 
TO Y. M. C. A. LEADERS AND WORKERS AT 
HOME AND ABROAD IN GRATEFUL APPRE- 
CIATION OF THEIR FAITHFUL AND LOYAL 
SERVICE. MUCH OF THIS WORK HAS BEEN 
DONE OUT OF SIGHT AND ENDLESS DIFFI- 
CULTIES HAVE HAD TO BE SURMOUNTED. 
NAMES HAVE NOT BEEN MENTIONED IN 
THE BOOK, BUT THE WRITER WOULD LIKE 
TO CONVEY HIS PERSONAL GRATITUDE AND 
APPRECIATION FOR THE SUCCESS OF THE 
GREAT WORK OF THE RED TRIANGLE TO 
DR. JOHN R. MOTT, WHOSE CLEAR VISION 
AND BRILLIANT LEADERSHIP HAVE MEANT 
SO MUCH TO THE YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN 
ASSOCIATION THROUGHOUT THE WORLD. 



FOREWORD 

THE final proofs of the American edition of this 
book were corrected during the concluding days of the 
writer's first visit to North America. During that all 
too brief visit he had many opportunities of seeing for 
himself the great work the Association is doing in the 
United States and Canada; of getting to know and 
love many of the men who are administrating that 
work, and of observing the tremendous hold the Y. M. 
C. A. has on the community. 

It was an inspiration to visit some of the great Asso- 
ciation buildings of America and to note the efficiency 
of the work, also to go to a number of the great Mili- 
tary camps and see something of the effective service 
the Y. M. C. A. is rendering to the men of the Army 
and Navy. 

Whilst expressing gratitude for the warmth of the 
welcome he received everywhere, he is particularly 
grateful for the hospitality accorded by the Y. M. 
C. A.'s of North America to Sailors and Soldiers of 
Britain when they have visited the United States. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PACE 

I. THE COMING OF THE RED TRIANGLE 13 

II. BLAZING THE TRAIL WITH THE RED TRIANGLE . 27 

III. FLOTSAM AND JETSAM 37 

IV. THE ROMANCE OF FINANCE 43 

V. THE LADIES OF THE RED TRIANGLE 59 

VI. "GUNGA DIN" OF THE RED TRIANGLE .... 67 

VII. IN THE TRAIL OF THE HUN 75 

VIII. THE BARRAGE AND AFTER 9 1 

ix. "les parents b lessees" 99 

X. CELLARS AND DUG-OUTS ON THE WESTERN 

FRONT 107 

XI. CAMEOS FROM FRANCE 113 

XII. STORIES OF "LE TRIANGLE ROUGE " 1 23 

XIII. THE RED TRIANGLE IN THE EAST 135 

XIV. SIDE LINES OF THE RED TRIANGLE 1 45 

XV. THE RED TRIANGLE AND THE WHITE ENSIGN . 1 57 

XVI. THE RELIGION OF THE RED TRIANGLE .... 163 

XVII. STORIES OF THE INVERTED TRIANGLE . . . . 1 75 

XVIII. THE RED TRIANGLE IN THE RECONSTRUCTION . 191 



CHAPTER I 
THE COMING OF THE RED TRIANGLE 



THE ROMANCE OF THE 
RED TRIANGLE 



CHAPTER I 

THE COMING OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

His Majesty congratulates the Association on the successful 
results of its War Work, which has done everything conducive 
to the comfort and well-being of the armies, supplying the special 
and peculiar needs of men drawn from countries so different 
and distant. It has worked in a practical, economical and un- 
ostentatious manner, with consummate knowledge of those 
with whom it has to deal. At the same time the Association, 
by its spirit of discipline, has earned the respect and approbation 
of the Military Authorities. — His Majesty The King. 

IT was in the summer of 1901, in the old Volunteer 
days, that the Y. M. C. A. for the first time had its 
recreation tents at Conway in North Wales. The 
Lancashire Fusiliers were in camp, and the men had 
thronged the marquee all day, turning up in great force 
for the service that Sunday evening. It seemed as if 
they would never tire of singing the old familiar 
hymns, and when the time came for the address the 
attention of every man was riveted from start to 
finish. At length the tent cleared and the men re- 

13 



14 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

tired for the night. Now and then the chorus of a 
hymn could be heard coming from a bell tent, but soon 
the "Last Post" sounded, and a few minutes later the 
plaintive notes of the bugle gave the signal for "Lights 
Out." Thereupon two of the Y. M. C. A. leaders, 
leaving the camp behind, walked up and down the 
sands of Morfa. It was a perfect night; not a sound 
was to be heard except the gentle ripple of the waves, 
three or four hundred yards away. The moon was 
near the full; everything seemed almost as light as 
day, and the bold outline of the Conway Mountain 
stood in clear relief against the sky. "I wonder what 
all this means," said one of the two, referring to the 
impressive service of the evening and to the crowds 
that had thronged the tents all day. "I have been 
wondering," said he, "if there is a great European 
War looming in the distance, and if God is preparing 
the Y. M. C. A. for some great work it is destined to 
perform then." How often have those words come 
back since the beginning of the war! God was indeed 
preparing the Association for a work infinitely bigger 
than any of its leaders knew or even dared to hope. 
In those days H. R. H. the Duke of Connaught be- 
came Patron of our Military Camp department and 
he has ever since been a warm friend. 

How far distant now seem those early days of 
August, 19 1 4. For weeks there had been rumours of 
war, but all arrangements had been completed for the 
work of the Y. M. C. A. in the Territorial Camps to 
proceed as usual during the August holidays. Then 



COMING OF THE RED TRIANGLE 15 

came the order for mobilisation and on August the 4th 
a council of war was held, attended by Association 
leaders from all parts of the country. Many of the 
districts were in financial difficulties owing to the sud- 
den break up of the summer camps, and the only pos- 
sible policy was the one agreed upon at the meeting — 
a common programme and a common purse. No one 
knew where the men, or the money, were to come from, 
but it was decided to go right ahead and from that 
resolve there could be no turning back. It is still true 
that "He that saveth his life shall lose it, and he that 
loseth his life shall find it." In that great crisis, had 
the leaders of the Y. M. C. A. stopped to consider the 
immediate or future interests of the Association, the 
Association would have gone under and deservedly so. 
Britain was in danger and her interests had to be con- 
sidered first. 

What stirring days those were! We think of one 
tiny village to the south-west of Salisbury Plain, with 
a normal population of two or three hundred. Within 
a few days of the opening of hostilities, thirty-four 
thousand men were dumped down in the immediate 
vicinity. They had no tents, no uniforms, no rifles, 
nowhere to go and nothing to do, for the simple rea- 
son that England did not desire war and had not pre- 
pared for it. The General in Command had known the 
Y. M. C. A. in India and came to London to ask our 
help, which was gladly given. Huge recreation tents 
were opened there and all over the country. North, 
South, East and West, Britain was suddenly trans- 
formed into one armed camp, and the Y. M. C. A. was 



16 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

never more needed than it was in those early days. 
Some of the centres were very small, others very large. 
At the Y. M. C. A. in the White City, for instance, it 
was no uncommon thing to see four or five thousand 
men gathered together in the great hall. At the Crystal 
Palace too and in many of the Camps the work was 
carried out on a very large scale whilst in other centres 
a farm building, a private house or a tiny tent met the 
need. Thanks to the loyal co-operation and energy 
of Association leaders and workers 250 of these cen- 
tres were established within 10 days. They were 
dotted down all over the country, and every week 
that passed by showed an increase in strength and in 
the number of centres until the sign of the Red Tri- 
angle was to be found in more than 4,000 centres in 
all parts of the United Kingdom, in every part of the 
Empire, all over America, on every battle-front and in 
some places where the Allied flags do not yet fly. The 
hands of the Military in those days were so full up 
with other things that they had little time to devote 
to the recreation of the troops, and our help was 
warmly welcomed. We have acted throughout in close 
co-operation with the Military, and we should like to 
add our tribute of praise to the efficiency of the Mili- 
tary Machine, as we have come in touch with it. Much 
has been said during the war as to the marvels of Ger- 
man organisation, and possibly not too much. At the 
same time there is quite as much to be said in praise 
of British organisation. Germany wanted war whilst 
we did not. Germany prepared for war, tirelessly, 
ceaselessly; with her eye on the goal — world-wide 



COMING OF THE RED TRIANGLE 17 

dominion — she brought all her organising ability to 
bear on the preparations for the war she was deter- 
mined to force on humanity. Britain, on the other 
hand, has had to improvise her war organisation since 
war has been actually forced on her. A run round the 
great base camps in France will show how wonder- 
fully complete that organisation has been — transport, 
supply, commissariat. Of course there have been mis- 
takes, but singularly few under the circumstances. 
Many people like to have a shot at the War Office, but 
those who know most of the difficulties that have been 
overcome and the successes achieved will be the least 
inclined to join hands with the critics. 

It is like a nightmare to think of that first winter of 
the war with its gales, rain and mud, and it was when 
the weather was at its worst that the men of the first 
Canadian Contingent were encamped on Salisbury 
Plain. It is difficult to conceive what they would have 
done but for the timely help of the Red Triangle. The 
roads were almost impassable and the mud in the 
vicinity of the camps appalling, but the Canadians 
stuck to it, and so did our leaders and workers. The 
tents were crowded to their utmost capacity, but it 
was soon found that no tent could weather the gales 
of Salisbury Plain in winter. That discovery led to 
the evolution of the Y. M. C. A. hut. Wooden frames 
covered with canvas were tried first of all, but they 
too, were incapable of withstanding the fury of the 
gales, and something much stronger had to be pro- 
vided. 

It meant a great deal to the country during that 



18 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

first winter of the war that the men were happy and 
contented because they had their leisure hours pleas- 
antly occupied, and because the most popular place 
in camp was almost without exception the one that 
bore the sign of the Red Triangle. And what did they 
find at the sign of the Red Triangle? They found 
there an open house, a warm welcome, a place of 
recreation and enjoyment where they could meet their 
friends on terms thoroughly cordial and unofficial. 
Coffee and buns were always a great attraction, and 
as for music — the piano was hardly ever silent. 
Tommy Atkins loves a good tune and loves a crowd ; 
the quiet place does not so much appeal to him. At 
the Y. M. C. A. he found diversion for his hours of 
leisure; opportunity for study if he cared for it; 
libraries, classes and lectures. There, too, he found 
an expression of religious life that appealed to him — 
the inspiration that comes from religion without the 
controversy and sectarian bitterness which, alas, too 
often accompany it, a religion to work by and a reli- 
gion that can do things. Before the war nobody had 
heard of our mystic sign, but within a few weeks let- 
ters bearing it had found their way into hundreds of 
thousands of homes, bringing joy and consolation 
wherever they went. That in brief is the story of the 
coming of the Red Triangle. And what is its signifi- 
cance? As the emblem of the war work of the Y. M. 
C. A. it has not been chosen by chance, but because 
it exactly typifies the movement it represents. The 
threefold needs of men are its concern and its pro- 
gramme is adapted to meet the needs of body, mind 



COMING OF THE RED TRIANGLE 19 

and spirit, whilst its colour symbolises sacrifice. In an 
old book of signs and wonders called "The Great 
Mystery," (Mysterium Magnum), the inverted tri- 
angle appears as a symbol of the divine spirit, and 
in the third year of the war a famous Belgian painter 
asked, "Qu'est-ce-que c'est— cet Y. M. C. A.?" and 
without waiting for an answer went on to say that the 
Red Triangle meant emblematically — "Spirit inform- 
ing and penetrating matter," which was, he supposed, 
the function of the Y. M. C. A. "The Y. M. C. A. 
is attempting the impossible," said one of its critics; 
"it is building on the apex of the triangle." Thank 
God it is. Yes! and thank God it has achieved the 
impossible. If any one had dared to foretell three 
years ago, a tithe of what has already been accom- 
plished, no one would have believed it. The secret of 
the inverted triangle is that it is upheld by invisible 
hands, and it is the full programme of the Red Tri- 
angle that appeals so irresistibly to the men. If we 
were merely out to run a canteen others could perhaps 
have done the canteen work as well or nearly as well 
as the Y. M. C. A. Others could run lectures for the 
troops and others cater for their spiritual needs, but 
it has been left to the Y. M. C. A. to formulate the 
appeal to the whole man — Body, Mind and Spirit — 
and the appeal to every man, irrespective of creed or 
party. Every man is equally welcome in the Y. M. 
C. A. — Protestant; Catholic; Anglican; Free-church- 
man; Jew; Mohammedan; Buddhist; Hindoo or 
Brahmin — the men of every religion and no religion, 
and yet the religious note is ever dominant though 



20 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

no man's religion will ever be attacked from a Y. M. 
C. A. platform. 

The story of the Red Triangle is indeed one of the 
great romances of the war. Its work has never been 
regarded as an end in itself, but rather as auxiliary to 
that of other organisations. It is auxiliary to the 
Church and its doors have been thrown wide open to 
the Padres of all denominations. Protestants, Cath- 
olics, Jews — even Mohammedans — have worshipped 
God in their own way within the hospitable walls 
of the Association. It has been auxiliary to the 
official medical services of the Army, the R. A. M. C, 
and the Red Cross — in hospitals and convalescent 
camps, and with the walking wounded at the clearing 
stations at the front. It has arranged concerts and 
entertainments by the thousand for patients and 
nurses; has looked after the friends of dangerously 
wounded men, and has often handed over its huts to 
be used as emergency hospitals ; while in hosts of other 
ways which can never be recorded it has been able 
to render vitally important service. It has been auxili- 
ary to the military machine at every turn of the war. 
In the midst of the camp though not of it, its secre- 
taries and workers conform to military rules and are 
subject to discipline, although they are themselves 
civilians. In this way the Association has provided 
the human touch, and officers and men alike have 
appreciated the fact that there is one place in camp 
where discipline through being temporarily relaxed, 
has been permanently strengthened. 

The Romance of the Red Triangle, like the story 



COMING OF THE RED TRIANGLE 21 

of the first crusade, has been the romance of the 
pioneer. The Y. M. C. A. was first in the field, 
though now there are many others — organised so- 
cieties and private individuals doing similar work on 
the lines which it thought out and proved to be practi- 
cable. Indeed, the whole story of the Y. M. C. A. 
has been full of adventurous episodes of romance, 
not merely during the war but long before it, com- 
mencing seventy-five years ago when young George 
Williams, a farmer's boy from Somerset, came to Lon- 
don, and as one of a band of twelve intrepid young 
men founded the first branch of a movement destined 
to spread to all corners of the world. It is only during 
these years of war that the society has fully come into 
its own, and received universal recognition, but we do 
not forget that to those pioneers of the early Victorian 
days and to the Y. M. C. A. leaders who during the 
years before the war hammered out a policy for work 
amongst the soldiers in the Volunteer and Territorial 
Camps, the wide-spread movement of to-day is largely 
due. 

To know what the Army thinks of the Y. M. C. A. 
one need only note on the one hand facilities given 
to the Association by officers in high command, and 
on the other, how the N. C. O.'s and men — officers 
and officer-cadets too — make use of the huts. 

Prior to one of our great advances in 191 7 the dis- 
trict to be attacked was reconstructed behind the line 
in a large map carefully worked out on the ground, 
every road and path being clearly marked. Every 
trench, redoubt and dug-out; every hedge and ditch 



22 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

was recorded, and every gun emplacement shown. 
"Reserved for the Y. M. C. A." was written over a 
vacant plot near the centre of the map. 

In France "Le Triangle Rouge" is often called "Les 
Ygrecs" (the Y's), and the Red Triangle will pass 
the Association worker almost anywhere. It sounds 
odd in the reserve trenches amidst the roar of guns 
and the scream of shells to hear the sentry's challenge 
as we have heard it, "Halt! who goes there?" "Y. M. 
C. A." "Pass, Y. M. All's well!" 

One of our workers in the valley of the Somme in 
191 7 was left behind as the troops advanced to follow 
up the line of the great German retreat. For weeks 
he shared his Y. M. C. A. shanty with the rats, and 
late one evening went for a two miles walk. A sentry 
challenged him and evidently regarded him with sus- 
picion. After he had convinced the guard of his 
identity it was explained to him that three German 
prisoners were at large, and one of them was known 
to be wearing a Y. M. C. A. uniform. When he awoke 
that night in his rat infested shanty it seemed to him 
that if the three Huns chanced to know of his where- 
abouts it would not be a difficult thing for them to 
possess themselves of yet another Y. M. C. A. uniform. 

In the early days of the war it was agreed that no 
request for the help of the Association, which on in- 
vestigation proved a definite need to exist, should be 
refused, and God honoured the faith of those who 
dared to make the resolve. The way the movement 
has grown and is growing still is nothing short of a 
romance, and the following pages tell the story of 



COMING OF THE RED TRIANGLE 23 

service rendered under the sign of the Red Triangle 
to the men of His Majesty's Forces irrespective of 
class, creed or party, in England and north of the 
Border, in Wales and Ireland, on every battle-front 
and in every Base; amongst men of every colour and 
creed who are serving under our great Flag — the Flag 
that stands for Freedom. 

Possibly the greatest romance of all will be that 
dealing with the work of the Red Triangle after the 
war. Who knows? 



CHAPTER II 

BLAZING THE TRAIL WITH THE RED 
TRIANGLE 



CHAPTER II 

BLAZING THE TRAIL WITH THE RED TRIANGLE 

"The Y. M. C. A. has fashioned a girdle of mercy and lov- 
ing-kindness round the world which will stand to their credit as 
long as the memory of this war exists." — Lord Curzon of Ked- 
leston. 

THE Red Triangle is often to be found in unex- 
pected places. "A wonderful, friendly old octopus, 
this Y. M. C. A.," was the way an Australian put it, 
and it was not at all a bad description of the ubiquitous 
Red Triangle. Tommy recognises it to-day as his 
club, his meeting house, his home from home. It is 
his and he knows it! It touches him at every point 
and in almost every place. The recruit finds it at his 
depot, near his billet and in the training camp where 
he learns to be a soldier; indeed, it is part of the train- 
ing, an all important part, too. Passing through Lon- 
don or a great provincial city, he can stay the night in 
one of the Y. M. C. A. Hostels; he meets it again at 
the English ports before he embarks for one of the 
fighting fronts; it is there to greet him on the other 
side, not only at the ports of entry and in the base 
camps but on the lines of communication in France, 
Italy, Egypt, East Africa, Palestine, Mesopotamia, and 
right up the line, in cellar or dug-out as well as in rest 
camp and at railhead. If he should have the mis- 

27 



28 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

fortune to be wounded he may expect to find the Asso- 
ciation at the casualty clearing station or in the hos- 
pital, and later on in the convalescent camp, or, if 
invalided out of the army, it will still stick to him 
and befriend him at a time when he is likely to need 
a friend. If he is numbered amongst the missing and 
finds himself in a Prisoner of War camp in Germany, 
even then he may not be beyond the outreach of the 
Association. There is at least one redeeming feature 
to the Prisoner of War camp in Ruhleben in Germany, 
for right in the heart of it there is a little brown hut 
with the Red Triangle and the letters "Y. M. C. A." 
on the roof — one of several in Germany erected with 
American Y. M. C. A. money at a time when America 
was a neutral state, and now run entirely by British 
prisoners of war for the benefit of their fellow-Brit- 
ishers who also have the misfortune to be prisoners 
of war. 

It is little we can do for these brave lads who are 
wearing their hearts out longing to hear the voices 
of those they love in the Homeland, but the Y. M. 
C. A. does what it can. 

This girdle of loving-kindness is completed in the 
Internment Camps of Switzerland — at Miirren, Leysin, 
Interlaken, Meiringen, and Seeburg, and in those of 
Holland at The Hague, Scheveningen, Rotterdam, and 
Groningen. None need our help more than the offi- 
cers and men in those Internment Camps. It was one 
of the latter who said he would rather be in Germany 
than in the Internment Camp in Switzerland, for in 
Germany, said he, one has, at any rate, the excitement 



BLAZING THE TRAIL 29 

of trying to escape. But now, working hand-in-hand 
with the British Red Cross, the Red Triangle provides 
recreation and employment for the long hours of 
leisure, and there can be no doubt as to the apprecia- 
tion of those it seeks to serve. 

A worker at Cambridge went to a neighbouring vil- 
lage to arrange a flag day on behalf of our war fund. 
He was advised to get in touch with the postmistress 
who was keenly interested in the movement. "Of 
course, I am interested," she said when he saw her, 
"and if you will come into my sitting-room I will show 
you why." There on the wall in a little room at the 
back of the Post Office was what she called her Roll 
of Honour — the photographs of twelve lads from her 
Bible class, all serving with His Majesty's Forces. 
"Eleven out of the twelve," said she, "write me almost 
every week and tell me what a boon the Y. M. C. A. 
is to them. That is why I am ready to do all I can to 
help you with your Flag Day." The sequel was inter- 
esting. Half an hour later No. 12 called to see her. 
"How strange," she cried. "I was just talking about 
you, and saying you were the only one of the boys 
who never wrote expressing appreciation of the Y. M. 
C. A." "That is easily explained," was the reply. "I 
have been at sea since the early days of the war and 
had no opportunity of getting ashore and using the 
Y. M. C. A. until three months ago when I was sent 
to Egypt and stationed at the Mena Camp. There 
I used the Association hut within sight of the great 
pyramid, and I appreciate the work as much as any- 
one to-day." 



30 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

A young soldier, who was formerly a Y. M. C. A. 
worker, wrote from France : "We came upon the Prus- 
sian Guard about ten days ago, and for five days and 
nights we fought hand to hand like demons, but in the 
end we gained our objective. You talk of the work 
of the Y. M. C. A. at home as splendid. I know it is, 
but here the Y. M. C. A.'s are more. In this place, 
famous for its wonderful bell tower, the Y. M. C. A. 
is in full swing, although only yesterday it was shelled 
heavily and shrapnel was falling pretty thick along 
the road. Cheero!" Another young soldier wrote 
from Malta and gave his experience of the Y. M. C. A. 
"The Association is the finest thing that was ever 
instituted without doubt. The army has blessed the 
fact many a time. I have served in France and a few 
other countries, and am in a position to know." 

In the early days of the war Y. M. C. A. secretaries 
learned to adapt all kinds of premises, no matter how 
primitive, to meet the needs of the troops. A cow- 
house amid the trenches of the East Coast, a pigsty 
in the south-west of England, neither of them much 
to look at, but doing good service and helping to blaze 
the trail ; a dug-out at Anzac and three tiny marquees 
at Cape Helles; a cellar at Meroc just behind the 
British lines in the neighbourhood of Loos ; a chateau 
formerly the residence of the Lord of the Manor at 
Mazingarb, and a palatial but ruined Technical Insti- 
tute at Armentieres. It was fixed up in a convent at 
Aire — the first Y. M. C. A. to be opened in a forward 
position in France — and inside a ruined hospice at 
Ypres ; in a Trappist Monastery on the Mont des Cats ; 



BLAZING THE TRAIL 31 

in the most southern city in the world at Invercargill ; 
above the clouds with the British troops in Italy; inside 
some of the German Prisoner of War camps in Ger- 
many; in the old German Consulate at Jaffa, in the 
heart of the Holy City, and on the Palestine lines of 
communication at Gaza and Beersheba. "The Jolly 
Farmer' ' near Aldershot, and the more notorious 
"Bolger's" public house in Sackville Street, Dublin, 
made their appearance early in the war under the 
sign of the Red Triangle, whilst Ciro's, the once 
famous night club in the heart of London, and the 
mansions of Viscount Wimborne and Lord Brassey 
have also been thrown open for the service of the 
Association. 

The trail of the Red Triangle was first blazed in the 
United Kingdom. Since then it has become familiar 
on every fighting front and in all sorts of queer and 
unexpected places. In the jungle of India; on the 
banks of the Tigris, the Euphrates, and the Nile; amid 
the swamps of East Africa; along the valley of the 
Jordan; in the Egyptian desert; in the great training 
camps of North America; in Australasia and South 
Africa, as well as on the plains of Flanders and 
Picardy; in the valleys of the Somme, the Marne, the 
Meuse, and the Aisne. It is to be found on the Varda 
and the Struma, and we have seen for ourselves how 
that trail has been welcomed by men of many nationali- 
ties — Britons from the Homeland and from the out- 
posts of Empire, from Canada, Newfoundland, Aus- 
tralia, New Zealand and South Africa, Indians, Chi- 
nese, Cape Boys and Kaffirs, Frenchmen, Portuguese 



32 THE ROMANCE OP THE RED TRIANGLE 

and Belgians — wherever the trail of the Red Triangle 
goes it stands for reconstruction even amid the horrors 
and desolation of war. 

An officer cadet who had spent two years in France, 
said he had noticed a great change in the attitude of 
the men. "In the early days of the war," said he, 
"men on arriving in new billets at the front would 
say, 'Is there no Y. M. C. A. in the village?' Later 
on they took it for granted that the Red Triangle was 
there and asked, 'Where is the Y. M. C. A. ?' Now 
they always say, 'Where is it?' And everyone knows 
to what they refer." It brings comfort, hope, good 
cheer and inspiration with it. An English boy writing 
home from Egypt to his people in the Midlands said 
that the Y. M. C. A. was to him as "a bit of Heaven 
in a world that was otherwise all hell." A visitor to 
the Association at Kantara expressed his surprise at 
finding such a splendid Y. M. C. A. building in that 
Egyptian centre, fitted up even with hot and cold 
baths ! 

A sum of £400 was taken in a single day over the 
refreshment counter in one of the Y. M. C. A. mar- 
quees in the heart of the Sinai Peninsula. And it 
will give an idea of the immense amount of work in- 
volved to the staff of the Association, when it is re- 
membered that all stores for that centre had to be 
conveyed from the railhead to the Y. M. C. A. on the 
backs of camels. 

A British soldier writing from the "Adam & Eve" 
hut in Mesopotamia said, "I should like to comment 
upon the wonderful work the Y. M. C. A. is doing 



BLAZING THE TRAIL 33 

here among the troops. In almost every large camp 
there is a Y. M. C. A. hut, a veritable haven in the 
desert, not only for canteen but religious work also. 
I attended a service in the hut and it made a good 
impression on me. We sang the good old hymns, and 
I am sure we all felt refreshed. ,, 

As might be expected the Dominions have done 
their full share of pioneering, and have blazed the 
trail in many different directions. The Canadians 
have done a great work at Shorncliffe, Sandling, 
Bramshott and Witley ; in the Forestry camps at home 
and right up the line in France. The Australians on 
Salisbury Plain, at Weymouth and in many other 
home centres have served their troops splendidly, 
whilst in France, Egypt, the Dardanelles and Pales- 
tine their pioneering work has been great. The New 
Zealanders at Sling Plantation, Hornchurch and other 
centres in England have done equally well, and their 
pioneering work overseas has been most efficient. The 
South Africans have done valuable work in the Mili- 
tary Expedition to Swakipund and in East Africa. 
India has made a great contribution to the Empire 
work of the Red Triangle, first of all by catering for 
the needs of British troops quartered in India itself, 
and also in Mesopotamia and East Africa, where the 
work has been directed from India, as has that for the 
Indian troops in France. Passing reference should 
also be made here to the great programme of work 
undertaken and planned by the Y. M. C. A.'s of the 
United States. In the United Kingdom, in France, 
Russia and Italy, as well as in North America, they 



34 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

have projected work on an enormous scale; in fact, all 
the Allied countries are closely co-operating in the 
work of the Red Triangle. It has been the privilege 
of the British Associations to provide huts for the 
exclusive use of Belgian, Serbian, and Portuguese 
troops, and in seventy places in France for Chinese 
coolies; also to cater for the needs of American and 
Colonial soldiers in hundreds of centres. In London, 
for instance, special facilities have been given to New 
Zealanders at the Shakespeare hut; we were able to 
procure for the Canadian Y. M. C. A. the magnificent 
Tivoli site on which their fine hostel now stands, and 
to hand over the group of huts to the Americans which 
formed the nucleus of the Eagle Hut. The Australians 
rented and furnished the Aldwych Theatre on their 
own account. The New Zealand Y. M. C. A.'s made 
a handsome contribution towards the cost of the 
Shakespeare Hut, and the whole of the cost of the 
Eagle and Beaver Huts has been borne by the Ameri- 
can and Canadian Y. M. C. A's respectively. The 
American and Colonial Associations have taken over 
a number of British huts in camps, and in some cases 
have enlarged them. 



CHAPTER III 
FLOTSAM AND JETSAM 



CHAPTER III 

FLOTSAM AND JETSAM 

Few Organisations have done so much in caring for the 
comfort and well-being of our soldiers as your Associations. 
They have given invaluable help to the Army and have im- 
measurably lightened the hardships which have to be endured 
by our troops. In recognising the excellent work that has 
already been done I should like to wish you success in that 
which you still propose to undertake. I consider that your plans 
for after the war are not the least important of your activities. 
— The Right Hon. David Lloyd George, M.P. 

THE Romance of the Red Triangle is a twenty- four 
hours a day romance, for many of its centres never 
close their doors. When we are comfortably sleeping 
at night and in the early hours of the morning, Y. M. 
C. A. workers are hard at work on motor patrol con- 
veying leave men from station to station or hut to hut, 
and others are on foot meeting the men and guiding 
them to their destination. Alighting from the Edin- 
burgh train at Leeds, very early one morning, it was 
raining and a young Scottish trooper stepped down to 
the platform from the adjoining compartment. We 
knew we were all right, a room having been retained 
for us at the station hotel, but what of him, had he 
anywhere to go? He evidently had no plans, but at 
that moment a gentleman in civilian attire stepped up 
to him and without patronising and in the most natural 

37 



88 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

way possible said to him, "Have you long to wait? 
Have you anywhere to go?" The lad replied that he 
had several hours to wait for his connection and had 
nowhere to go. "Well, come along with me, and I will 
see you all right at the Y. M. C. A." People who do 
this work or devote themselves night after night to that 
of the motor patrols don't often get their photos in the 
papers, but they are rendering national service of a 
high order without fee or reward, and in almost every 
case, at the end of a hard day's work. 

The International Hospitality League of the Y. M. 
C. A. is doing similar work on a very large scale and 
in its kiosks and enquiry rooms, not only in London 
but in Glasgow, Edinburgh, and many of our large 
provincial centres hundreds of thousands of enquiries 
are being received and answered day by day, whilst the 
street patrol workers have been able to help very many 
who have welcomed their assistance. 

We know of no more moving sight than one of the 
great Triangle huts in France when leave is on. We 
think of our last visit to one such. Three hundred men 
were sleeping there that night and "Uncle Joe," the 
Y. M. C. A. leader, went round the bunks last thing 
to see them safely tucked in. As we stood in the main 
hall we thought we understood what was said of our 
Lord that "When He saw the multitude He was filled 
with compassion." Scores of men were gathered 
around the piano singing rowdy choruses of the kind 
loved by our Tommies. The coffee queue extended 
the whole length of the room and the men had to buy 
their tickets from Uncle Joe, who had a few words 



FLOTSAM AND JETSAM 30 

with each in homely Lancashire dialect, whilst further 
along the counter a titled lady was serving coffee as 
fast as she could pour it out. There were crowds 
at the tables, reading or feeding. We noticed at one 
table a group of men, one of whom was cutting up 
a long French loaf, another had just opened a tin of 
sardines which he was sharing round, whilst a third 
was helping his comrades from a tin of pears. All 
were on their way home on leave, or on their way back 
to the Front, and all were merry and happy as British 
Tommies almost invariably are. 

Sometimes in a London hut, or it may be in the 
Y. M. C. A. in Paris, you will come across one of these 
Tommies who is down and out. He has been on leave 
and has spent or lost all his money, and is down on his 
luck. It is to the Y. M. C. A. he turns. A little act of 
kindness, under such circumstances, has often changed 
a man's whole outlook on life. Nearly the whole of the 
service in the Y. M. C. A. hostels is rendered volun- 
tarily and many workers who have home or business 
ties welcome this opportunity of doing war service that 
really counts. There is a tendency in some quarters to 
speak disparagingly of the voluntary worker, but those 
who know realise the enormous value of such service. 
No paid workers could have been more zealous or more 
efficient than those who have served voluntarily under 
the Red Triangle. The old Brewery in Earl Street was 
the first building in London to be adapted for sleeping 
purposes, but the "Euston" was the first Y. M. C. A. 
hostel to be built. One of the largest is the Shake- 
speare Hut, which was built on the site of the proposed 



40 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

National Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, kindly loaned 
for the purpose. The huge building by London Bridge 
was lent by the city of London. Many of these huts 
occupy central and important sites, as for instance, the 
stations huts at King's Cross, Victoria and Waterloo 
and the station hut often means the last touch of home 
before men go overseas and that makes the work and 
the personality of the workers all the more important. 



CHAPTER IV 
THE ROMANCE OF FINANCE 



CHAPTER IV 

THE ROMANCE OF FINANCE 

In my opinion nothing can exceed the value of the work 
which has been and is being done for H. M. Forces by the 
Y. M. C. A. I offer my best wishes for continued success. — 
The Rt. Hon. H. H. Asquith, K.C., M.P. 

ON August 4th, 1 9 14, our plan for war work was 
ready but the "sinews of war" were lacking. Little 
could be done without money. In our extremity we 
laid the whole position before one of our most generous 
leaders and supporters and told him of the opportunity 
we saw facing the Y. M. C. A. "If we are to seize the 
opportunity," we said, "it is absolutely necessary we 
should .secure immediately twenty-five thousand 
pounds!" He looked up and smiled indulgently — 
"Twenty-five thousand pounds," he cried, "you could- 
n't possibly raise three thousand pounds at a time like 
this; the thing's impossible!" "Impossible or not," 
was the reply, "it must be done. We mustn't even stop 
to think of the future of the Y. M. C. A. Everything 
is at stake and even if we have to sell every building 
and every stick of furniture we possess we must go 
forward now !" That very day a large number of tele- 
grams and letters were sent out from Headquarters 
to friends all over the country — the first war emergency 

43 



44 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

appeal of the Red Triangle — and within a few days the 
whole of the twenty-five thousand pounds had been 
raised, and we were appealing for another fifty thou- 
sand pounds, until in August, 191 8, the war fund 
reached the total of nearly two and a half millions 
sterling. That is a small sum compared with the 
amounts raised for Y. M. C. A. war work in the 
United States. Their first appeal brought in one and a 
half million pounds, the second more than ten millions, 
and their appeal a year later in October, 19 18, was for 
twenty million sterling. Our American friends gave us 
a hundred thousand pounds from the amount raised by 
their second war work appeal, a generous and much 
appreciated gift. People who know little of the facts 
are sometimes inclined to criticise what they regard as 
the huge war expenditure of the British Y. M. C. A.'s, 
but a moment's reflection will make it clear that it has 
been little short of a miracle of finance to carry out 
such an enormous programme of work at a total cost 
of only about one third of the cost to Britain alone of 
a single day of war. We have always been short of 
money, have always had a big overdraft at the Bank, 
and that largely because we have had to finance a huge 
business concern without capital. Our war fund has 
been secured partly as a result of skilful advertising, 
partly through personal solicitation and in response to 
postal appeals. Flag Days and Hut Weeks have also 
proved valuable agencies for raising money. The full- 
page Y. M. C. A. advertisements in "The Times" and 
other papers were something quite new in religious and 
social work advertising, though the method has since 



THE ROMANCE OF FINANCE 45 

been widely adopted by other organisations, even in- 
cluding the government ! 

Many touching stories are told concerning gifts to 
the war fund, gifts many of which have not been se- 
cured as a result of cleverly drawn advertisements, but 
because the contributors have been touched directly or 
indirectly by the work itself. A boy wrote home from 
Flanders, "Tell Dad if he has any money to spare to 
give it to the Y. M. C. A. as a thankofTering for what 
they are doing for us chaps out here/' One of our 
centres had been nearly destroyed by a Zeppelin bomb. 
It was re-built and the day came for the re-opening. A 
lady was present and expressed herself thus — "I 
wanted to be here to-day, if only to thank you for what 
your Association has done for my boy. When the war 
broke out," said she, "he went to the Crystal Palace for 
his training and found the Y. M. C. A. there an in- 
estimable boon. He was sent to Blandford to complete 
his training, and the Y. M. C. A. was there. He was 
drafted out to Gallipoli and to his amazement he found 
the Y. M. C. A. on the Peninsula. He was wounded 
and sent to Suez where once more the Y. M. C. A. was 
a great help to him, and yesterday," she continued, "I 
received a letter from him from Alexandria saying he 
was convalescent and spending the whole of his spare 
time in the central building of the Association." It is 
that personal touch that has made the appeal of the 
Red Triangle one of the most popular appeals of the 
war. 

A lady called one day with a novel suggestion. She 
had been reading a statement attributed to the Kaiser, 



46 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

in which the All Highest is alleged to have said that 
if the worst came to the worst every dog and cat in 
Germany would be armed in defence of the Fatherland. 
"If the dogs and cats of Germany are going to do that 
for their country," she said, "why shouldn't the dogs 
and cats of England pay for one of your huts?" Quite 
frankly there did not appear to be much money in the 
scheme, but it could do no harm, so we encouraged it ! 
Imagine our surprise when a few days later the same 
lady walked in with a cheque for four hundred and 
fifty pounds. There was one gift of five pounds, all 
the rest had been given in smaller amounts, and alto- 
gether upwards of two thousand dogs and cats — or 
their masters and mistresses — had contributed. A few 
weeks later the fund was closed, at just over one thou- 
sand pounds, and there has been no more useful centre 
of Y. M. C. A. war work, than the "Dogs & Cats 
Hut" at Rouen, paid for entirely by this fund. 

The Boys and Girls fund has reached upwards of 
twenty thousand pounds. We had been speaking to the 
boys at Harrow School and the suggestion had been 
thrown out that it would be a good plan to have a 
"Harrow" Hut at the Front. At the close of the meet- 
ing the Headmaster supporting the suggestion said he 
would give the collection in Chapel the following Sun- 
day to the fund. The head boy approached him after- 
wards and said, "I think, sir, it would be a mistake to 
make a collection for the Y. M. C. A. on Sunday. If 
you do the boys will think they have done their bit 
and won't bother any further. Won't you let us make 
a whip up round the houses and see what we can do?" 



THE ROMANCE OF FINANCE 47 

Thus it was agreed, and the five hundred pounds, which 
in those days was the cost of a hut, was raised in less 
than a week. We have seen that hut in France and 
know how much it was appreciated. During the Ger- 
man advance in Picardy it had to be temporarily aban- 
doned, but fortunately was speedily occupied again. 

In the early days of the Euston hut, the vicar of a 
neighbouring parish was keenly interested, and told the 
children in his day school what he had seen in the hut. 
At the close of his address a deputation of the older 
children waited on him and told him they were inter- 
ested in what he told them, and would much like to help 
the Y. M. C. A. in its work for the soldiers. "You 
help?" queried the vicar, "how can you help?" He 
knew how poor they were. To his surprise they had 
their scheme ready, and their plans cut and dried. 
"This time every year," said the spokesman, "we put 
by our pennies and our ha'pennies for our annual 
treat. We don't feel like having a treat this year 
when all this terrible fighting is taking place. We 
would rather give the money to the Y. M. C. A. to 
spend on the soldiers and sailors." A few days later, 
the leader of the Euston Hut was sitting at a table in 
the central hall when his attention was attracted by a 
group of ragged children, standing round the entrance. 
Curiously they would peer inside and then step back, 
until two or three bolder than the others walked right 
in as if the whole place belonged to them. That was 
too much for the leader. He went up to them and cried, 
"You must run away; this place isn't for boys and 
girls, it's for soldiers and sailors." Looking up into 



48 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

his face a little ragged youngster retorted, "Please, sir, 
we've given our money towards this show, and we want 
to see how it's run!" On enquiry, it was ascertained 
that the children belonged to one of the poorest of the 
schools in the north of London, and out of their pov- 
erty they had given no less than thirty shillings, nearly 
the whole of it in pennies and farthings. Many 
memorial gifts have been received, and a hut that will 
be an inspiration and help to tens of thousands, is 
surely one of the most suitable of memorials. 

Business firms and merchant princes have given their 
thousands; others with equal generosity have contrib- 
uted shillings. In the Channel Islands, there was a 
fish-hawker named Richards who eked out a slender 
livelihood by selling fish on the streets of Jersey. The 
coming of the war hit him so hard that he was com- 
pelled to leave for France to seek other employment. 
He got a job under the contractors who were building 
the hutments in the Harfleur Valley. He did well, and 
eventually returned home to Jersey. The Sunday after 
his return his Minister was taking up special collections 
for the hut fund. Richards had found the Red Tri- 
angle huts at Havre a great boon, and on entering the 
Church at the evening service handed his Minister a 
little paper packet containing coins. The padre fin- 
gered the parcel and said to himself, "He has given six 
pennies, a generous gift, too, under the circumstances !" 
Imagine his surprise on opening the packet to find there 
six half-crowns, and he said, "You ought not to 
give so much; you can't possibly afford it." "When I 
remember all the Y. M. C. A. did for me when a 



THE ROMANCE OF FINANCE 49 

stranger in France and homeless," was his reply, "I 
can't possibly do less and wish I could give more." 

A flower-seller at a popular seaside holiday resort 
for many months has given to the local Y. M. C. A. hut 
a shillingsworth of flowers each week, as a thank-offer- 
ing for what the Association has done for her husband 

and son. 

At Taunton a farm labourer called at the back door 
of the house of the president of the local Y. M. C. A. 
and said he wanted to help the war fund. It was the 
only thing he could do to help the men at the Front. 
He had tried to enlist several times but they would not 
have him. He laid on the table fifty one-pound notes 
and went back to his work on the farm. Enquiries 
elicited the fact that he had given practically the whole 
of his savings, and had done it in spite of his employer's 
urgent advice to the contrary. 

At the close of a meeting held by one of our workers, 
an elderly lady came to him and said if he would go to 
her house she would give him a sovereign. He went 
and she gave him the coin, and then closing the door of 
her private room, said, "And now I am going to give 
you the most precious possession I have in the world." 
Her voice choked with emotion as she proceeded, 
"Years, many years ago, I was to have been married. 
The arrangements were made, the day fixed and the 
ring bought, and— then he died!" And she sobbed as 
she spoke. Going to a bureau she took out a little box 
and handing it to him, said, "The wedding ring is in 
there. I have kept it all these years, but I promised the 
Lord I would only keep it until He showed me what 



50 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

He would have me do with it, and He told me while 
you were speaking. I give it to you for the Y. M. C. A. 
and for the boys," and she turned away utterly broken 
up. Thousands of incidents could be related of equal 
interest to the foregoing, did space permit, and all these 
incidents combine to give a personal interest to the 
fund. We can only add that the greatest possible care 
has been taken to administer the fund wisely and so 
avoid waste, or anything that savours of extravagance. 
Of course, Y. M. C. A. finance has come in for criti- 
cism. Certain people who have visited the huts and 
have seen the enormous business there transacted have 
come to the conclusion that either very large profits 
are being made, or that the business methods of the 
Association leave much to be desired. The question 
has frequently been asked, "What is done with the 
profits ?" and the fiction has got abroad that the Y. M. 
C. A. publishes no accounts and is amassing huge sums 
of money. The real position is easily stated : 

The Y. M. C. A. does not do trading for trading's 
sake but because through its trading department it is 
the better enabled to meet the needs of the troops and 
also because profits on trading mean further extension. 
So rapid has been the development of the war work 
of the Y. M. C. A. that not only has every penny of 
profit been spent on the maintenance and development 
of this work for soldiers and sailors, but it has been 
necessary to raise large sums of money in subscriptions 
to meet the ever-increasing demand for extension. 
Every new centre means, or may mean, an additional 
burden on the central fund or on the divisional funds 
for which the National Council is ultimately respon- 



THE ROMANCE OF FINANCE 51 

sible. First, there is the cost of the hut which may 
mean £750 or may run into thousands — it all depends 
upon size and site. The initial cost may be defrayed 
by an individual gift to the central war fund, but usu- 
ally to make the hut large enough for its purpose, addi- 
tional money has to be spent, whilst the furnishing will 
probably cost from one to three hundred pounds, or 
more. Also, it must carry stock to the value of a hun- 
dred pounds or possibly much more if it is a big camp. 
A very big turn-over in a Triangle hut may represent 
a very small profit, e. g., there are enormous sales of 
stamps and postal orders, and all these are sold for 
actual cost, and, what is more, the Association has to 
bear the loss of shortages. Then there are the things 
the Y. M. C. A. does free of any charge whatever, 
e. g., there are no club fees and no charges for admis- 
sion to concerts, lectures or entertainments in the ordi- 
nary hut. Free writing paper and envelopes are at the 
present time costing more than £90,000 a year. Thou- 
sands of pounds are spent on cricket and football out- 
fits, games generally, books, pictures, and literature for 
free distribution. Hot drinks and refreshments are 
given free to the walking wounded on a very large 
scale and practically every one of the two thousand 
war Y. M. C. A.'s keeps "open house" at Christmas. 
The work of the Y. M. C. A. for the relatives of 
wounded is very costly, especially in France, many 
hostels being maintained for that purpose. Motor 
transport is an expensive item for which there is no 
return, and very large sums of money are spent on lec- 
tures and educational work. It is estimated that the 
Y. M. C. A. educational programme in France alone, 
may ultimately cost the Association fifty thousand 
pounds a year. When the request has come to open a 
new centre, the determining factor has been, "Is it 
needed?" not "Will it pay?" Indeed many huts in iso- 



52 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

lated centres cannot possibly be made to pay, and yet 
they mean everything to the men who use them. The 
spending department of the Association has been built 
up with the greatest care. A body of well-known busi- 
ness men meets for hours every week and watches ex- 
penditure as a cat watches a mouse. The Acting Treas- 
urer of the War Emergency Fund is a partner in a big 
firm of Indian Merchants, and devotes himself with 
untiring energy and conspicuous ability to the super- 
vision of accounts and expenditure. The accounts are 
audited by a leading firm of chartered accountants, and 
the audited statement of receipts and expenditure to- 
gether with balance sheet, is published in "The Times" 
and other papers every six months. Through the profit 
made on the sale of temperance refreshments, etc., in 
the war Y. M. C. A.'s the British soldier and sailor 
contributes indirectly one pound for every twenty shil- 
lings put up by the public, and this whilst at the same 
time getting full value for his money. In every camp 
the prices are fixed by the Military, who stipulate 
that we must not undersell their official canteens. 
Owing chiefly to the enormous stores that have to be 
maintained in France and Overseas generally the Bank 
overdraft of the war fund has often reached four to 
five hundred thousand pounds. It is thus not difficult 
to see what is done with the profits. The Y. M. C. A. 
might, had it so chosen, have feathered its nest during 
the war, but with a sublime, though by no means a reck- 
less disregard of the future, it stepped right into the 
breach and went straight forward to meet the national 
need. 

As a Y. M. C. A. we pride ourselves on the business 
management of our work. We insist on business meth- 
ods being adopted and we do not mix our business with 
philanthropy — the Association hut is not a charity as 



THE ROMANCE OF FINANCE 53 

far as its business side is concerned. The average hut 
in a large camp is expected to pay its way so that sub- 
scriptions from the general public can be applied to the 
extension of the work and to the maintenance of 
centres that cannot be self-supporting on their own. 

The War Office, in the early stages of the war, asked 
us to pay a rebate of 10 per cent on the gross takings 
of the refreshment department. After full considera- 
tion, we came to the conclusion that we could only do 
this by extracting the money from the pockets of the 
men who for the most part are miserably paid, by pay- 
ing it out of subscriptions given by the public, or by 
limiting the extension of the work. Neither alternative 
seemed desirable or in the interests of the men, and 
after many conferences with the Quartermaster-Gen- 
eral's department at the War Office it was agreed by 
mutual consent and at the suggestion of the War Office 
to refer the matter for decision to the Secretary of 
State for War. It was at the time Lord Kitchener was 
in Gallipoli, and Mr. Asquith was personally in charge 
at the War Office. At a conference at Downing Street 
the representatives of the Board of Control Regimental 
Institutes stated their case, and we had the opportunity 
of replying. Mr. Asquith took several weeks to con- 
sider the question in all its bearings, and ultimately 
gave the decision entirely in our favour, and decided 
for the duration of the war we should not be asked to 
pay the rebate. Later on, the matter was reopened 
by Lord Derby and eventually it was found necessary 
for the Y. M. C. A. to pay 6 per cent on their gross 
takings in huts on military ground, to regimental 



54 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

funds, and this is a great tax on its resources. Many 
of the huts are loaned free to the military for Church 
Parades and for Military Lectures. 

The figures of the Red Triangle are colossal, and yet 
figures by themselves fail to give an adequate idea of 
the magnitude of the work, and for obvious reasons 
it is impossible to make those statistics complete. On 
a given date it was ascertained that upwards of 45,000 
workers were giving regular service to the war work 
of the Y. M. C. A. By August 31st, 1918, 929,590,430 
pieces of stationery had been sent out from Y. M. C. A. 
Headquarters in London for distribution amongst the 
men of His Majesty's Forces. The stationery bill by 
the summer of 1918 had risen to the rate of upwards of 
£90,000 per annum. 

In two months 105 tents were sent out to replace the 
huts and tents lost in Picardy and Flanders. 

In eighteen months, Triangle House, London — the 
Headquarters of our Trading Department — sent out 
to the Y. M. C. A. overseas : 

875 Gramophones and 8,386 Records. 

322 Pianos and Organs. 

572 Billiard and Bagatelle Tables. 

1,341 Sets of Boxing Gloves. 

108 Optical Lanterns. 

10,188 Sets of Draughts. 

1,335 Sets of Chess. 

3,140 Sets of Dominoes. 

4,263 Footballs. 

1,080 Sets of Quoits. 

657 Sets of Cricket. 

4,992 Extra Balls. 



THE ROMANCE OF FINANCE 55 

1,540 Extra Bats. 
1,798 Hockey Sticks. 

520 Balls. 

426 Golf Balls. 

100 Tennis Sets. 

330 Tennis Racquets. 
2,364 Tennis Balls. 
61 Sets Bowls. 

358 Badminton Sets. 
60 Baseball Sets. 

It will be noted that the items in this list are not 
trading goods to be sold at a profit, but excepting in the 
case of some of the billiard tables, are non-remunera- 
tive and provided absolutely free for the use of the 
men serving overseas. 



CHAPTER V 
THE LADIES OF THE RED TRIANGLE 



CHAPTER V 

THE LADIES OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

Her Majesty feels sure that the useful work which is being 
carried on by the Young Men's Christian Association in so many 
different centres is highly appreciated, not only by the soldiers, 
but also by the Community. — Her Majesty The Queen. 

BEFORE the war it was one of our stock sayings 
that the Y. M. C. A. was a work "for young men by 
young men/' and one must recognise the fact that the 
man who is a man, virile, strong, athletic, is the one 
to whose leadership men will most readily respond. 
But in the early days of the war most of our young 
male workers joined up. And whether we liked it or 
not we had to get the help of ladies, and our more 
enterprising leaders felt that after all there were some 
things in Y. M. C. A. hut work ladies could do almost 
as well as men. Things have moved since then and 
now we know that much of the work can be done 
infinitely better by women. In many cases women 
have been entrusted with the actual leadership of huts 
and have carried through the duties magnificently. 
The Red Triangle has given the woman her niche in 
the Y. M. C. A., and for the great programme that 
awaits us after the war her help will be indispensable. 
It has, moreover, given the woman who had home 
claims an opportunity of doing war work that really 

59 



60 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

counts, in her spare time. The Queen and Queen 
Alexandra have been graciously interested in the work 
of the ladies of the Red Triangle, and many of the 
ladies of the Royal House have rendered conspicuous 
personal service, amongst whom might be mentioned 
H. R. H. Princess Christian; H. R. H. Princess 
Louise ; H. R. H. Princess Patricia of Connaught, and 
H. H. Princess Marie Louise, whilst H. H. Princess 
Helena Victoria as lady President has given time and 
strength to the work without reserve, and we owe very 
much to her. In the camps ladies have given the home 
touch that means so much to the men — games, music, 
decorations and flowers have come within their do- 
main; they have managed the libraries, and have in 
most cases taken full responsibility for the refreshment 
department. Their personal influence has been in- 
valuable. We remember visiting a camp somewhere 
in France. It seemed to us the roughest camp we had 
ever seen. The leader told us of an encounter he had 
with one of the worst of the men on the occasion of 
his first visit to the place. He had just got his tent 
erected and the man, chancing to see it, asked what it 
was. When told that it was the Y. M. C. A., he re- 
plied, "You b men are just what we d men 

b well want," and that was the language of the 

camp. Eighteen months later we were there again 
and the camp was like another place, so great was the 
change for the better. The C. O. told us he attributed 
that change almost entirely to the ladies of the Red 
Triangle. It so happened that one of the ladies com- 
mitted an unpardonable military offence. She returned 



LADIES OF THE RED TRIANGLE 61 

to England two or three days before her permit ex- 
pired. Later on, application was made in the usual 
way for the renewal of her permit. The General 
concerned, who is no longer in France, returned the 
application with the words written across it over his 
initials — "Keep this woman out." The Base Com- 
mandant sent it in again, having written on it — "Talk 
about keeping this woman out, she is of more value to 
me than truckloads of parsons and chaplains !" That 
was his way of putting it, not ours. We have the 
greatest possible admiration for the work of the chap- 
lains at the front. There is no finer body of men on 
active service to-day, and it is a privilege we greatly 
esteem to be permitted to co-operate with them and to 
be of some service to them in their great work. 

The ladies have always been ready to share the 
risks with the men, and there are quite a number who 
have made the supreme sacrifice, including Miss Small- 
page, killed by shrapnel in one of our munition huts 
in England; Miss Betty Stevenson, killed in an air 
attack in France; Miss Edith Lowe, died of cerebro- 
spinal meningitis; and Miss Lee, who lost her life in 
a fire in one of the huts on Salisbury Plain. 

In one of the great bases in France there is a small 
camp in which at one time there were boys only. They 
were too young to fight, their job day by day was 
the prosaic one of filling up petrol cans. One of these 
little chaps had badly hurt his hand, and it seemed to 
him the natural thing to go for sympathy and help to 
the lady of the Red Triangle. A brief examination 



62 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

convinced her that the damage was serious; she bade 
him go to the doctor whose tent was just across the 
way. Very grudgingly he trudged across to the doc- 
tor, but a few minutes later he returned with the re- 
quest that she would look at the damaged hand and 
see if the doctor had attended to it properly. She re- 
plied that it would never do to interfere with the doc- 
tor's work and, moreover, the doctor had no doubt 
done it far better than she could have done. Five 
times the lad came back with the request, "Oh ! Missis, 
do look at my hand and see if he's done it right." The 
fifth time he brought with him as an ally the Y. M. 
C. A. secretary in charge, who said, "If I were you, 
Miss, I would look at his hand. The little chap will 
never be happy until you do." Then she undid the 
bandage, looked at the dressing, and bandaging it up 
again said, "There, it's just as I told you, the doctor 
has done it far better than I could, run away and be 
quite happy about it!" He went away, but returned 
again a few minutes later, and that time his eyes were 
full of tears as he cried, "Oh, Missis, I did think you'd 
have kissed me when you saw how bad it was," and 
like the good woman she was she kissed him as his 
mother would have done. Let no one think that's 
what the ladies of the Red Triangle usually do, for it's 
not, and yet in that simple story you have the whole 
secret of the success of the war work of the Y. M. 
C. A. 

Time, and time again, one has been through every 
base camp in France, and has traversed the whole 
British line in France and Flanders, and wherever 



LADIES OF THE RED TRIANGLE 63 

one has gone one has found the men yearning for 
sympathy and longing for home. Not that they want 
to return home until this fight ends in victory, for 
out there they have learned what war means; they 
see it robbed of its romance, and they are determined 
to see it through, they fight that this war may end war. 
With unfailing loyalty to the high aims of the Red 
Triangle and with conspicuous ability ladies have 
served the Y. M. C. A., and through the Association 
the men of His Majesty's Forces and the munition 
workers in all parts of the United Kingdom, in France, 
and every part of the Empire, and have won for them- 
selves a permanent place in the movement, whatever its 
future may be. 



CHAPTER VI 
"GUNGA DIN" OF THE RED TRIANGLE 



CHAPTER VI 



'gunga din" of the red triangle 



This work has been admirably done, both at home and at 
the front. Its spiritual and material value to the men lies be- 
yond all reckoning, and the services of its personnel are deeply 
appreciated by the men themselves. — The Rt. Hon. A. J. Balfour, 
O.M., M.P. 

ONE of the most striking of Kipling's characters 
was Gunga Din, the Indian water carrier. He was 
not a fighting man, but when fighting was taking place 
he was in the thick of it, risking his life that he might 
carry water to slake the thirst of the fighting man. 
"Gunga Din" was the appropriate name given to one 
of our leaders in France by a British Tommy. Those 
who do not know are sometimes inclined to sneer at 
the Y. M. C. A. man for having a "cushy" job, but 
it is hard work from start to finish. His job is never 
done, and very often is attended with considerable 
risk. His work may carry him right into the front 
line trenches, and though it does not take him "over 
the top," yet unlike the soldier, he has not the privilege 
of hitting back. His day's work will vary according 
to the camp. In all probability he will have to be up 
early in the morning to get the coffee ready. The hut 
must be cleaned and there will be a lot of canteen work 
to be done. The buying will occupy some time, and 

67 



68 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

then there will be the evening programme to arrange 
and carry through. He must maintain personal touch 
with the men using the hut, so that the ideal leader 
must be half-a-dozen men rolled into one. 

Our greatest difficulty during the war has been that 
of getting a sufficiency of workers of the right type. 
Every male worker is registered with the Director of 
Recruiting, and we are unable to recruit new men 
classified A between the ages of 18 and 52, or 18 and 
45 for service overseas. 

Twelve members of the Y. M. C. A. have won the 
Victoria Cross, 3 the D.S.O., 25 the D.C.M., 33 the 
M.C., and 53 the M.M., whilst registered at head- 
quarters are the names of 1,223 wno have made the 
supreme sacrifice. We think of many whose war 
work for the Y. M. C. A. has earned the title of 
"Gunga Din," as, for example, the young leader of 
the New Zealand work in France. He looks a boy, 
but is a genius for organising, and the pioneer of the 
work of the Red Triangle in advanced positions. An- 
other man who has the instincts of the pioneer is the 
leader of the Australian workers in Egypt and Pales- 
tine, and yet another, a well-known Y. M. C. A. worker 
who, after doing good service in England in the early 
days of the war, went to represent Headquarters in 
Egypt. Torpedoed en route he took up his new work 
with characteristic enthusiasm and made good. Hun- 
dreds have rendered equally valuable service, so that 
it would be invidious to mention names. 

In the great retreat, it was the D.A.Q.M.G. of the 
Corps who asked us to open up a Stragglers' Post 



"GUNGA DIN" 69 

at Westoutre. "You are the people who can cheer 
up the men," said he. "I want you to get hold of the 
stragglers before they become deserters." It was 
"Gunga Din" he needed, but this time with cocoa urn 
instead of water bottle, and it was only an old bank 
to which our workers fixed their Red Triangle, but it 
was just what was needed. A bursting shell forced 
them to quit, but half-an-hour later they had opened 
up again in the village shop, opposite the church, and 
the Mayor thanked them later on for their successful 
efforts. 

Our officers' hut at Romerih was set on fire by a 
shell; shells were falling fast and the larger hut soon 
became untenable, but the Y. M. C. A. man was run- 
ning his show in the open under a tree and was as busy 
as ever. The ubiquitous "Ford" did its bit, and its 
load would sometimes consist of the Divisional Secre- 
tary himself, one or two other workers or Belgian 
refugees, a big caterer's boiler, a tea urn, together 
with cases of biscuits and cigarettes. Thus equipped 
it would proceed to some advanced dressing station. 
Sometimes there would only be a Sergeant and order- 
lies in charge, heroically doing their best to help the 
wounded, and the mere presence of a man like one of 
our secretaries gave them confidence, whilst the steam- 
ing hot drinks he soon had ready gave new courage 
to the wounded men who thronged the casualty clear- 
ing stations. A great work of the "Gunga-Din" type 
was done by our men on the Nieppe-Bailleul road dur- 
ing the retreat. What an amazing scene it must have 
been; an endless stream of refugees and wounded; 



70 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

units lost ; batteries firing ; men who had been for days 
without food, moving about like ghosts and digging 
themselves in at the side of the road. The Huns were 
only about eight hundred yards further along the road, 
and our soldiers fired as they walked. For three nights 
none of our workers even thought of going to bed; 
they stood by with cars ready to help where and how 
they were most needed, and gave help to soldiers and 
refugees alike. At dressing and casualty clearing sta- 
tions they gave emergency help. At Remy, for in- 
stance, one of our men was told off to undress the 
wounded and rig them out in new pajamas, whilst an- 
other made himself useful in cleaning the floors. Hot 
drinks were given out freely in all these centres just 
behind the line. 

Following the British victory at Messines on June 
7th, 191 7, a Leeds minister serving on the staff of the 
Y. M. C. A. wrote home describing the work for the 
walking wounded as he had seen it : 

"It was about three o'clock in the morning when 
the signal to advance was given, and the boys went 
over the parapet. About two hours later the wounded 
began to arrive at our hospital in ambulance vans. It 
had been previously arranged that only as far as pos- 
sible walking cases — men slightly wounded — should be 
dealt with at our station, and the expeditious and effi- 
cient way in which their wounds were attended to 
reflected great credit on the medical staff. As soon 
as they left the dressing room they were passed on to 
our Y. M. C. A., where we supplied them with various 
kinds of refreshments free. It was my great privilege 
to serve the first patient, who had a broken arm, with 



"GUNGA DIN" 71 

a freshly-made cup of tea and a sandwich, and never 
shall I forget his look and words of appreciation. 
Some were too ill to eat anything for a time, especially 
those who had been gassed or were suffering from 
shell-shock, but they were very glad of a seat on the 
grass in the shade of our tent. Some were so badly 
wounded that they were unable to speak, while others 
were half deaf and dumb as the result of shock. It 
was pathetic to see such men scribbling their request 
for a drink on a piece of paper. All were loud in their 
praise of the Y. M. C. A., and many were quite over- 
come when they realised that the tea, lemonade, ciga- 
rettes and various kinds of eatables were provided 
free. One Scottish-New Zealander, whose father is 
a well-known seed merchant in Edinburgh, declared 
that the Y. M. C. A. was the greatest thing in the war. 
In addition to attending to the needs of the "inner 
man" — and some of them we had to feed like babies, 
as both hands were wounded — we wrote letters and 
field cards for them, and tried in every possible way to 
add to their comfort. The spirit manifested by the 
majority of them was simply splendid, and scarcely 
ever did they refer to their own suffering and hard- 
ships." 



CHAPTER VII 
IN THE TRAIL OF THE HUN 



CHAPTER VII 

IN THE TRAIL OF THE HUN 

No one can be long in this country without realising the im- 
mense value of your organisation, and the constant extension of 
your activities itself testifies to the high regard in which it is 
held by our soldiers. — Field-Marshal Sir Douglas Haig. 

THE history of the British Empire has been written 
over again, and written in blood, in the valleys of the 
Somme, the Ancre, and the Scarpe. Tens of thousands 
of our noblest and best lie buried in these valleys or on 
the tableland of Peronne situated between the insignifi- 
cant rivers that have within the past few months earned 
a world-wide notoriety. No one can visit a modern 
battle-field without realising something of the appall- 
ing waste of war. Towns and villages have been 
blotted out of existence or are marked to-day by a few 
unrecognisable ruins. Thanks to the efficiency of 
British organisation, excellent roads were quickly es- 
tablished right through the stricken district and it was 
impossible to traverse any of them without marvelling 
at the obstacles overcome and the successes gained. 
The road, for instance, from Albert to Bapaume, 
through Pozieres, Le Sars and Warlincourt, passing 
close by Contalmaison and Martincourt, was contested 
almost yard by yard, and the same thing may be said 
of the road that leads along the side of the Ancre from 
Albert past the Leipzig Redoubt, near Thiepval and 

75 



76 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

Beaumont Hamel, through Achiet-le-Grande to Ba- 
paume, or the one from Peronne through Le Transloy. 

It was in December, 1916, that I paid my first visit 
to the valley of the Somme. The scene was dreary be- 
yond description. Many villages known to us by name 
as the scenes of desperate fighting were names only. 
Hardly a vestige of a house or cottage remained where 
many had been before the war. Here and there one 
could see the entrance to a cellar; the charred stump of 
a strafed tree; the remains of a garden; or a bit of a 
cemetery. Everything else was churned up into the 
most appalling mud. 

One day I had tea with an Army Commander who 
has done great things since then, and he showed me a 
series of photographs — the most interesting I have ever 
seen — which were taken the day before my visit, by our 
airmen, over the German lines. For seventeen and a 
half miles back, the enemy, with infinite care and pa- 
tience, had constructed trenches, "and," said the Com- 
mander, "every time we destroy his front line trench he 
constructs another one in the rear." "But," I cried, 
"if this kind of thing goes on, and unless the unex- 
pected happens, the war must surely continue indefi- 
nitely." His only reply was, "Is it not always the un- 
expected that happens in war?" I was back again in 
Picardy in the summer of 191 7, and the unexpected 
had happened. The whole of the seventeen and a half 
miles of trenches were in the hands of the British ! The 
enemy had retired to the much advertised "Hinden- 
burg Line," and leaving nothing to chance was tire- 
lessly, ceaselessly massing and training his men, getting 



IN THE TRAIL OF THE HUN 77 

together huge reserves of munitions, husbanding his 
resources in every possible way, and preparing, always 
preparing day and night for his next great move. 
Meanwhile Italy's defences had to be strengthened by 
troops we could ill-afford to spare from our western 
front, and Russia, in loyalty to whom we first entered 
the war, failed us altogether, German intrigue being the 
underlying cause in each case. In his great advance in 
March and April, 191 8, he did not achieve all he set out 
to do by any means, but his gains were enormous. It 
made one sad to think of the territory we had tempo- 
rarily to relinquish to the Hun in Picardy, even though 
the country itself was not of any intrinsic value. The 
land is desolate, and the enemy ruined every village and 
hamlet, every farm and cottage, before his retreat. 
Ninety-three Red Triangle centres — huts, marquees, 
cellars, dug-outs and "strafed" houses — had to be aban- 
doned in Picardy alone — most of them, destroyed be- 
fore they fell into the hands of the Germans. 

During the first visit to the battlefields of the Somme 
in the winter of 19 16 the outstanding feature of the 
landscape was the mud and the general desolation. In 
the summer of 191 7 the scenes of desolation were as 
great as ever, but there was a difference — the roads 
were in excellent condition and bridges had been re- 
placed. There were shell-holes everywhere and the 
countryside was strewn with dud shells; barbed wire 
entanglements ; with here and there a stranded tank that 
had to be abandoned in the mud; the remains of 
trenches and dug-outs or the cages in which the Huns 
had collected their British prisoners. There were no 



78 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

domestic animals to be seen and no civilians. The 
whole district from Albert to Peronne, to Bapaume or 
to Arras, was one huge cemetery, and one saw side by 
side the elaborate cross that marked the burying place 
of German dead, the smaller cross with the tricolour on 
it, that marked the last resting place of a soldier of 
France, and everywhere for miles and miles could be 
seen the little plain brown crosses of wood, that marked 
the spots where lay our own loved dead. We climbed 
to the top of the famous Butte of Warlincourt that so 
often changed hands in the course of desperate fight- 
ing and there on the top were those little brown crosses. 
We stood at the edge of the vast crater of La Boiselle 
that inaugurated the first battle of the Somme and saw 
in its depths several of those little symbols of our Chris- 
tian faith, but looking away across the desolation of the 
battlefield one marvelled at the efforts of nature to 
hide up the ravages of war. There were the most glori- 
ous masses of colour everywhere — the colour given by 
the wild flowers of the battlefields. One felt one had 
never seen more vivid blue than that of the acres of 
cornflowers which rivalled the hues of the gentian of 
the Alps. It may have been imagination, but looking 
out from the Butte of Warlincourt over miles of 
poppies, one felt one had never seen such vivid red, and 
instinctively those words came into one's mind : 

"O Cross that liftest up my head, 
I dare not seek to fly from thee ; 
I lay in dust life's glory dead, 
And from the earth there blossoms red, 
Life that shall endless be." 



IN THE TRAIL OF THE HUN 79 

The wild flowers of Picardy bloomed over British 
graves again in the summer of 191 8 though Ger- 
man, not British eyes, saw them during the early 
months, but those flowers speak of eternal hope and 
tell us that if we but do our part the sacrifice of our 
bravest and best will not have been made in vain. 

Amid the ruins of Picardy the Y. M. C. A. did some 
of its best work. Lord Derby spoke of the Association 
as "essential in peace time, indispensable in war time," 
and never was the Association more indispensable than 
during those terrible days of the German advance in 
19 1 8. "Amid the everchanging scenes of war it has 
been one of the forces working for reconstruction." 

We mourn the loss of huts and Red Triangle centres 
that have cost money and on which labour has been 
lavished. Not much to look at — many of these places, 
and yet to those who knew them they possessed an in- 
describable charm and fascination. It was only a little 
marquee for instance that formed the Headquarters 
of the Red Triangle at Henin in 19 17, only a couple 
of padres, one Church of England and one a Free 
Churchman, there to represent the Y. M. C. A., but the 
whole story is a romance. Whilst we were sharing 
their lunch of bully beef and potatoes, bread, biscuits 
and coffee, a "strafe" began. The British artillery, 
half a mile away, were pouring lead into the Hun lines. 
Fritz soon replied and things became lively. A shell 
burst near us but our padres took no notice of it and 
seemed to regard a little incident of that kind as a 
matter of course. Another shell burst on the cross 
roads we had just traversed. It was here we had our 



80 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

first glimpse of the Hindenburg Line with Crucifix 
Corner in the foreground. Whilst we were still at 
lunch the Germans began to throw over some of their 
heavy stuff in the direction of Monchy which was not 
far away. The British camp at Henin had been 
heavily bombarded a few days before our visit, and the 
troops quite properly had run like rabbits to their 
burrows. The last to take refuge in the dug-outs were 
our two padres, who with a keen and commendable 
sense of duty had waited to gather up the cash before 
taking refuge from the shells. 

It was only when the grey clad Germans were actu- 
ally in sight that the workers at St. Leger left their 
loved Y. M. C. A. I only visited St. Leger once, but 
that little shanty strangely fascinated me. It was not 
much to look at, just a group of ruined farm buildings, 
and in it "the swallows had found a house," and re- 
gardless of our presence, yes, regardless of the shells, 
for St. Leger was bombarded every day even then, they 
flew backwards and forwards feeding their young 
and twittering as merrily and unconcernedly as if it 
had been a farm building in one of our English coun- 
ties. It must have been with a heavy heart that those 
Y. M. C. A. men turned their backs on St. Leger and 
trudged to Boisleaux-au-Mont, where the five splendid 
huts that formed our equipment, shortly afterwards 
shared the fate of St. Leger and were all destroyed 
before the advance of the Huns. 

At Boyelles the tent was amid the ruins by the road- 
side and the enamelled Triangle sign was attached to 
the bottom of the trunk of a tree that had been cut 



IN THE TRAIL OF THE HUN 81 

down by the enemy and was lying in the hedge just as 
it fell. Achiet-le-Petit Y. M. C. A. was in an orchard, 
the equipment consisting of a big marquee and several 
little shanties ingeniously constructed by the workers 
from empty petrol cans and biscuit boxes. High up 
in an elm tree was a sort of crow's nest used by the 
Germans as an observation post during the time of 
their occupation. At Haplincourt the Y. M. C. A. was 
anything but imposing — an insignificant house fitted up 
as a club room, but in the paddock behind it, the secre- 
taries had erected a platform, and arranged an open-air 
auditorium on a grand scale. A hundred yards or so 
away was a large plunge bath, deep enough for a good 
high dive. It had been constructed by the Germans 
when they were in occupation, but when we saw it a 
score of our own Tommies were disporting themselves 
in the water and having a high old time. 

Albert was a scene of desolation, with its ruined 
Church as the most conspicuous feature. High up on 
top of the spire dislodged by German shells, and jut- 
ting out at right angles to the spire, was the famous 
figure of the Virgin holding in her hands the infant 
Christ. For many months the figure had remained in 
this position and was only finally brought down during 
the enemy's advance in 1918. The Y. M. C. A. in 
Albert was established in one big hut and two badly 
ruined houses. It was on the Saturday that St. Leger 
fell, and the Sunday at Albert was a memorable day. 
The town was crowded with an endless stream of men, 
horses, guns and service waggons passing through. 
Little was sold in our canteen, but free refreshments 



82 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

were handed out by tired but willing workers all day 
long. Nearly all those workers had thrilling stories 
to tell of narrow escapes from death. Albert was 
evacuated on the Sunday night and the place must have 
presented somewhat the appearance of a shambles. 
The Boche aeroplanes were dropping bombs or firing 
their machine guns all the time, but still our men kept 
on serving the hot tea and cocoa, biscuits and cigarettes 
that were so much appreciated by officers and men 
alike, only leaving their posts and abandoning their 
hut when ordered to do so by the Military. The re- 
treat from Albert must have been like an awful night- 
mare. Some of our men in the darkness became en- 
tangled in the fallen wires and whilst trying to extract 
themselves heard the hum of an aeroplane just over 
head, and a bomb was dropped only a few yards in 
front of them. 

At Bapaume we had several centres in and closely 
adjacent to the town. Bapaume, like Peronne, was 
not destroyed by enemy shell-fire but deliberately 
wrecked by the Hun before he was forced to evacuate, 
and the foe we face to-day is a past master in the art 
of destruction. Hardly a building of any description 
remained intact in either of these towns when the 
British entered into occupation. That very fact made 
us marvel when, standing for the first time in front of 
the big building occupied by the Y. M. C. A. in Peronne, 
we noticed that it was practically intact. On entering 
the building we marvelled still more, for the first object 
we saw was a fine German piano. Surely it was an 
act of kindness on the part of the wily Hun to leave it 



IN THE TRAIL OF THE HUN 83 

for our men. Was it? When the British occupied 
Peronne a company of troops from the West of Eng- 
land were the first to enter that house. A Tommy who 
was musical made a bee-line for the piano, but his 
officer restrained him, bidding him first look inside. 
It was well he did so, for three powerful bombs were 
attached to the strings of the piano, and had he touched 
one of the keys concerned, he himself, the piano and 
the building would have been utterly destroyed. In the 
hut attached to the house a boxing match was taking 
place on the evening of our arrival, and men had come 
from outposts miles away to take part. Underneath 
the house was a German dug-out of almost incredible 
depth. The original staircase was missing — the Ger- 
mans having commandeered the wood for the construc- 
tion of the dug-out — but it had been replaced by an 
ingenious Y. M. C. A. secretary who had searched 
amid the ruins of Peronne until at last he had found 
another staircase, which, with infinite pains and labour 
and not a little ingenuity, he had built in to replace the 
original one. The day before our visit the old lady 
who had lived in the house before the war paid a visit to 
her old home. She was a refugee and had trudged 
miles to get back to Peronne. She requested permis- 
sion to dig in the garden and soon unearthed the uni- 
form of her husband who fought against the Germans 
in 1870. She had buried it there before the fall of the 
town. Digging again she came across his sword and 
accoutrements, and deeper still her silver spoons and 
other trinkets that she valued. Could anything bring 
home more clearly the horrors of war? If instead of 



84 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

Peronne in Northern France it had been that sweet 
little town in England or Scotland, or that village in 
Wales or Ireland, Canada or the United States in 
which you live ! If you had heard the cry one evening, 
"The Huns are coming," and if you had just half an 
hour in which to rush round your home and gather 
together any things you specially treasured and take 
them out into your garden and bury them knowing that 
anything you left behind would be either looted and 
sent to Germany, or deliberately destroyed for sheer 
hate! How easily this might have been, but for the 
mercy of God ; the mistakes and miscalculations of the 
enemy, and the bravery and self-sacrifice of our heroes 
in blue and khaki ; yes and our workers in fustian and 
print — for England must never forget the debt she 
owes to her munition workers as well as to her sailors, 
soldiers and airmen. They see nothing of the romance 
of war; they know nothing of its excitement, and yet 
apart from their patriotic service the best efforts of our 
fighting men would have been in vain. 

During the months that preceded the great retreat 
in the spring of 191 8, new Red Triangle huts were 
springing up like mushrooms, especially in the Fifth 
Army area, that part of the line that had recently been 
taken over from the French. Supported by the gener- 
ous gifts of friends at home, ably directed by our divi- 
sional secretaries and those associated with them in the 
work, and supported and encouraged in every way by 
the Military authorities, the progress made was re- 
markable. Then came the unexpected advance of the 
German hordes and the laborious work of months was 



IN THE TRAIL OF THE HUN 85 

destroyed in a few hours. At Noyon the secretary had 
to quit in a hurry but returned to the hut later to bring 
away the money belonging to the Y. M. C. A. Thrice 
he returned and the third time found it impossible to get 
away. After remaining in hiding for twenty-four 
hours he at length managed to escape with ten thou- 
sand francs in his pocket, saved for the Association, 
which lost so heavily during those terrible days. At 
Amiens the Y. M. C. A. workers hung on for ten days 
after the official canteens had been removed, because 
the town had become too hot for them. Day and night 
the "J°v" hut close to the railway station was kept 
open, thronged with officers and men, and the service 
rendered to the troops may be gauged from the amount 
of the takings, which ranged between 20 and 30 thou- 
sand francs a day. 

Our total loss in the retreat was exceedingly heavy 
— more than 130 huts and other centres in Picardy and 
Flanders, and in cash, upwards of one hundred and 
fifty thousand pounds. Serious as was that loss it 
might have been very much worse. Eight trucks of 
stores and equipment were stopped in the nick of time. 
The axle of one of our big lorries broke within a hun- 
dred yards of the most heavily shelled area in one of 
the towns bombarded by the enemy, but it was got 
away and, excepting in two cases, all the money and 
notes from tills and cash-boxes were removed safely 
before the huts were abandoned — striking testimony to 
the devotion of those in charge. "What I think im- 
pressed me most," wrote the organising secretary for 
France, "has been the undaunted spirit of our workers, 



86 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

who, when shelled out of huts, persisted in the attempt 
to return to them under very great personal danger. 
'Although we have lost everything that we had,' wrote 
one, 'we have still hope within us and are trusting to 
get back right into the thick of things in the very near 
future,' yet another, writing in the spirit of Eastertide, 
said, 'We believe that our work will rise in new fresh- 
ness and power out of its apparent extinction!' 
There was a singular unanimity of effort on the part 
of the workers who were isolated one from the other, 
and had no opportunity of arranging a common policy. 
The sale of such articles as the soldiers needed con- 
tinued in the huts up to the last moment possible, and 
then, when the danger of the hut and stores falling into 
the hands of the enemy became imminent, biscuits and 
cigarettes were handed out as largely as possible to men 
in the neighbourhood taking part in the fighting. One 
would have thought that having done this the workers 
would have considered their own personal safety and 
retired, but in several cases I found them running 
stunts for walking wounded in the open, outside the 
hut or in its immediate neighbourhood, in close touch 
with the medical authorities." 

"The confusion of the retreat opened up to our 
workers opportunities of service which they gladly 
utilised. Last night was a night of uncertainty," he 
wrote. "We could not go to bed owing to the uncer- 
tainty of the military position where our headquarters 
were, and so stood on a high hill beside an old Trappist 
monastery, watching the village at the foot in flames, 
and trying to ascertain the progress of the fighting 



IN THE TRAIL OF THE HUN 87 

through the darkness. Our workers even under these 
circumstances seized an opportunity of doing a very 
fine bit of service. A stream of poor refugees were 
passing, people of all conditions and ages, fleeing for 
safety and shelter, and so at 11.30 at night at the cross 
roads a little table was set up with a hot urn of cocoa 
and supplies of biscuits, which were handed out to 
French and Flemish people as they passed. 

"I have never seen anything that has touched me 
more than these streams of all sorts and conditions of 
people straggling along with their little belongings, in- 
fants in arms to old people who had not walked a mile 
for years. It was a great opportunity for rendering a 
truly Christian service. The other day we lent one of 
our large lorries for a whole day for the purpose of 
carrying these people in some degree of comfort to a 
place of safety." 

Thus by every device that resourcefulness and ex- 
perience could suggest the workers of the Y. M. C. A. 
in France ministered to the comfort of the men who 
were so bravely sustaining that terrible onslaught. 
The organisation of the Red Triangle is the embodied 
goodwill of the British people towards its beloved 
army. An emergency like the one in the spring of 
19 1 8 was just the time when the services of the Red 
Triangle were most sorely needed by our soldiers. 

Fortunately, all the Y. M. C. A. workers got away 
safely. Sixty from the Fifth Army took refuge at 
Amiens, whilst more than eighty from the area of the 
Third Army found sanctuary at Doullens. 

A few months later, thanks to the arrival of the 



88 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

Americans in France, and the brilliant strategy of Foch 
and Haig; thanks above all to the mercy of God, the 
tide turned and the Huns were once more in full re- 
treat. A distinguished war correspondent wrote his 
impressions of Bapaume a day or two after it had again 
been captured by the British. Said he, "I prowled 
about the streets of Bapaume through gaping walls of 
houses, over piled wreckage, and found it the same old 
Bapaume as when I had left it except that some of our 
huts and an officers club, and some Y. M. C. A. tents 
and shelters have been blown to bits like everything 
else." A ruined town without a Y. M. C. A. ! Could 
anything be more desolate ? 



CHAPTER VIII 
THE BARRAGE AND AFTER 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE BARRAGE AND AFTER 

The problem of dealing with conditions, at such a time and 
under existing circumstances, at the rest camps has always been 
a most difficult one; but the erection of huts by the Young 
Men's Christian Association has made this far easier. 

The extra comfort thereby afforded to the men, and the op- 
portunities for reading and writing, have been of incalculable 
service, and I wish to tender to your Association and all those 
who have assisted my most grateful thanks. — Field-Marshal 
Viscount French. 

IT was on the afternoon of July 30th, 191 7, that 
we reached Bailleul in Flanders. Proceeding directly 
to the Headquarters of the Y. M. C. A., we had tea 
and then set out to visit the huts in the vicinity. It 
was a novel experience, for every hut was empty. The 
reason was not far to find. The troops were in their 
camps formed up in marching order, and later in the 
evening we watched them march out to take part in 
the great offensive. We were told that the barrage 
was timed for 3.50 in the morning, and were asked to 
have our work for the walking wounded ready at 
five a. m., so we determined to spend the night on the 
top of Kemmel Hill, the highest hill in Flanders. It 
was just after midnight when we reached the summit 

91 



92 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

of the hill; and we wondered if the barrage had not 
already commenced, so heavy was the firing. From 
our point of vantage we could see the whole of the 
sector, from Armentieres in the South, across the 
battlefields of Messines and Wytschaete and away be- 
yond Ypres in the North. Silently, close to us, an 
observation balloon stole up in the darkness, and a 
few minutes later as silently descended. Involuntarily 
we ducked as a monster shell shrieked overhead, and 
someone cried, "There goes the Bailleul Express!" 
About 3 a. m. things began to quiet down. Our 
guns might have been knocked out; they were hardly 
replying at all to the enemy's fire. Later on we saw 
a series of .signal flashes high up across the battlefield, 
and then at 3.50, promptly to the moment, the barrage 
began and there was no possibility of mistaking it — 
two thousand guns, as we learned afterwards, all firing 
at the same time. As one looked at that hell of flame 
and bursting shell, one felt it was impossible for any 
life to continue to exist beneath it, and one thought 
of the boys, as steady as if they had been on parade, 
creeping up behind that barrage of fire. We had 
seen them as they left their camp the night before 
and we saw them when they returned — some of them 
— during the two days following the barrage; not in 
regiments a thousand strong, with colours flying and 
bands playing, but dribbling back one or two at a time 
— the walking wounded — and each one came in to our 
little Y. M. C. A. tents attached to the clearing station. 
One of these was as an island in a sea of mud — near 
Dickibusch huts in Flanders. There was a queue in- 



THE BARRAGE AND AFTER 93 

side of two or three hundred men. Every man in that 
queue was wounded, and waiting to have his wounds 
attended to; every man was hungry until he entered 
that tent ; every man plastered from head to foot with 
the most appalling mud, and unless one has seen the 
mud of Flanders or of the Somme, it is impossible to 
imagine what it is really like. As I mingled with the 
men in the queue and assisted our workers to hand out 
hot tea, coffee and cocoa, biscuits, bread and butter, 
chocolate, cigarettes or organes, I thanked God for the 
opportunity He had given to the Y. M. C. A. The 
thing that impressed me more than anything else was 
the fact that one did not hear a single complaint, not 
one word of grousing. And why not? Was it because 
the men liked that kind of thing? Don't make any mis- 
take about it — no one could possibly like it, but out 
there they know they are fighting not for truth and 
freedom in the abstract, but for their own liberty and, 
what is infinitely more important to them than that, 
for their homes and loved ones. They know that what 
the Hun has done for Northern France and Flanders 
is as nothing compared with what he would do for the 
places and the people we love if he once got the oppor- 
tunity of wreaking his vengeance on us. There is no 
finer bit of work that the Y. M. C. A. is doing to-day 
than this work for the walking wounded, which before 
any great push takes place is carefully organised down 
to the last detail. Before one of the great battles, our 
men took up their positions at thirty-four different 
centres where they were able to minister to the needs 
of the wounded, and thus to co-operate with the mag- 



94 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

nificent work that is being done under the sign of the 
Red Cross. As in France, so in Italy and in the East, 
at Beersheba and other centres on the lines of com- 
munication in Palestine, records show how efficiently 
the same type of service is being rendered to our brave 
troops. 

To return to the barrage. It is always interesting 
to note the effect a scene of that kind has on people 
of different temperaments. We had been sitting round 
a huge shell-hole near the top of Kemmel Hill feeling, 
it must be confessed, a trifle "fed-up" with things. 
We were all tired and had had a very heavy day's 
work. It was an uncomfortable night, to say the least 
of it, with drizzling rain and very cold for the time of 
year. At the first sound of the drum-fire of the bar- 
rage set up by the British guns, we sprang to our feet, 
y wild with excitement. A distinguished padre from 
the Midlands was lost in admiration for the work 
of the munitioneers whose labours made possible this 
great strafing of the Hun. The leader of the party, a 
colonial from far-off Australia, simply danced with 
excitement which he made no attempt to suppress, 
contenting himself with ejaculating from time to time 
expressions to the effect that that was the most dra- 
matic moment of his life. An unemotional Professor 
from one of our great Universities stood with 
clenched fists, and was overheard to say, "Give 'em 
hell, boys!" Another padre in the company began 
to quote Browning, the quotation referring to the 
signal flashes to which reference has already been 
made: 



THE BARRAGE AND AFTER 95 

. "From sky to sky. Sudden there went, 
Like horror and astonishment, 
A fierce vindictive scribble of red, 
Which came across, as if one said, 
. . . There'— 
'Burn it!' " 

How often it happens that in the greatest moments 
of one's life, it is the trivial thing that appeals most 
strongly to one's imagination. So in this case. The 
thing never to be forgotten was connected with the 
early dawn. I can see even now, that long grey streak 
on the horizon across the battlefield. And as the day- 
light came, a thrush from a bush close to where we 
were standing began to pour out its song of praise and 
thanksgiving, heedless of falling shells and the roar 
of guns. There was something unspeakably pathetic 
in that song on the battlefield, yes and prophetic of 
the great day that is coming in spite of all reverses; 
the day of victory and peace, peace purchased at the 
price of struggle and of blood. 

As one watched the barrage from Kemmel the on- 
slaught seemed to be irresistible. It seemed impossible 
for the German hordes to hold our men back. Neither 
could they have held them, but what the Hun could 
not do, the rain did for him. It just teemed down, 
and in a few hours Flanders was churned up into a 
swamp of mud. It was impossible to bring the big 
guns up and the whole advance was stayed. One 
thought how often the same thing had happened be- 
fore, and wondered, only wondered, if we at home 
were supporting the boys at the front as they had a 



96 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

right to expect us to support them? It is so easy at 
a time like this to put one's trust merely in "reek- 
ing tube and iron shard/' and to leave God out of our 
calculations. After all, in this great struggle we are 
not fighting merely against "flesh and blood," but 
against "principalities and powers, against spiritual 
wickedness in high places," and even to-day "more 
things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams 
of." It was that great soldier, Sir William Robertson, 
who said, "Let us never forget in all that we do that 
the measure of our ultimate success will be governed 
largely, if not mainly, by the extent to which we put 
our religious convictions into our actions and hold 
fast firmly and fearlessly to the faith of our fore- 
fathers." Had the Germans beaten us two years ago 
everyone would have known the reason why — they had 
more men, bigger guns, and more of them, more aero- 
planes, and an infinitely better supply of munitions of 
war, but by the summer of 191 7 we were superior to 
them in every particular, and yet victory tarried. 
Why ! Could it be that God was waiting for his people 
to seek his aid ? 

With Russia out of the war, with our Allies, we 
were once again to stand with our backs to the wall — 
the position in which the British are always seen at 
their best — and the National crisis came as one more 
challenge to the Nation to turn to the God of our 
fathers. 



CHAPTER IX 
"LES PARENTS BLESSEES" 



CHAPTER IX 



f LES PARENTS BLESSEES" 



The Y. M. C. A.? Why, they could no more do without the 
Y. M. C. A. than they could do without munitions at the front! 
I have seen it in operation. — The Rt. Hon. Will Crooks, M.P. 

"A GREAT Mother Hen" — so wrote one who for 
the first time saw the work of the Y. M. C. A. for the 
relatives of dangerously wounded men. This work is 
carried on in London and a number of provincial 
centres, but it is seen at its best in France, for there it 
is on a much larger scale. If a man is dangerously 
wounded and lying in one of the hospitals on the other 
side of the Channel, a message is sent to his people at 
home containing the requisite permission to visit him 
and telling them moreover, that from the moment they 
reach France the Y. M. C. A. will take care of them. 
Red Triangle motors meet every boat as it reaches a 
French port; automatically the relatives of wounded, 
or "Les Parents Blessees" as the French call them, are 
handed over to our care, and we motor them to their 
destination — assisted sometimes by the Red Cross. As 
this may mean a run of eighty or a hundred miles, 
and in war time may mean a whole day, or possibly two 
days on the French railways, the motor run is in itself 
a great boon. During the whole of the time they are in 
France, the relatives are entertained as the guests of 



100 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

the Red Triangle in the special hostels that have been 
established for the purpose in the principal bases. Many 
of them have never been away from their own homes 
before; they know no language but their own, and a 
journey of the kind would have its terrors at any time, 
but to all the ordinary difficulties has now to be added 
the fact that they are consumed with anxiety on ac- 
count of those who are dearer than life itself. It 
means everything to them that the Y. M. C. A. as a 
"Great Mother Hen" takes them under its protection, 
soothes and protects them, so that in the darkest mo- 
ments of their lives they are not dealt with by offi- 
cials who have to get through so many cases in a given 
time, but by sympathetic friends, actuated only by the 
love of God, and of country. One of the most beauti- 
ful of these hostels is "Les Iris." It is hidden away in 
the depths of a wood near the sea, and in the spring- 
time the nights are full of the melody of the nightin- 
gales. This hostel is reserved largely for the use of the 
relatives of dangerously wounded officers. The lady 
who presides over another of the hostels has been called 
the Florence Nightingale of the Red Triangle, and in- 
deed that would be a suitable name for any of these 
ladies who take the relatives to their hearts and do 
everything possible to comfort and cheer them and 
make them feel at home. As we write, a letter from 
one of our guests lies before us. We quote from it 
because it is typical of thousands of letters received 
from grateful friends : 

"Many thanks for the photo of my son's grave re- 
ceived this morning. How very kind you Y. M. C. A. 



"LES PARENTS BLESSfiES" 101 

people are. I little thought last November when I was 
begging (Hut Week in Brighton) that I should reap 
personal benefit from the Y. M. C. A. The kindness 
and hospitality extended to my husband and I when we 
came to France nearly three months ago, we shall never 
forget. It is not in our power to help with money 
except in a small way, but we tell all we can, and help 
in every way in our power." 

During a recent visit to France we had the privilege 
of being shown over one of the British hospitals which 
like all our hospitals, was wonderfully efficient. Every- 
thing that could be done to alleviate suffering was done. 
In one ward every man was seriously wounded, and 
side by side were two beds, one occupied by a young 
Canadian and the other by a young Britisher. The 
latter had his mother with him who was one of our 
guests. The Canadian watched them together for some 
time in silence but followed them with his eyes as a cat 
might a mouse. Suddenly, without any warning, he 
flung himself over on to his side and burst out crying. 
Questioned as to what was the matter he replied, 
"Nothing." "Then what makes you cry? Is the pain 
worse?" "No, thanks, the pain is better." "Then 
what makes you cry like that?" Drying his eyes, the 
boy replied, "It's all very well for him, he's got his 
mother with him. My mother is more than six thou- 
sand miles away!" Is it not worth any effort and any 
cost to help the loved ones of these men who have made 
such great sacrifices for us ? 

The whole of this work for "Les Parents Blessees" 
is full of pathos. On one occasion we reached a big 



102 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

hospital centre just as another Association car arrived 
from a big base port, bringing three English women 
to see their husbands. The Y. M. C. A. leader took 
them to the wards they were seeking. At the first, the 
sister in charge came to speak to one of our guests and 
said, "I am very sorry but am afraid your husband 
won't know you. He has been terribly ill and all sorts 
of complications have set in, but you had better come 
in and see him." Twenty minutes later we saw her 
again and she told us that for ten minutes she sat by 
her husband's bedside but he did not know her. Then 
stooping over him she whispered, "You remember little 
Lizzie and little Willie at home, don't you ?" For one 
second he gave her that look of love and recognition 
that made the long journey from home worth while. 

Passing on to another ward we sent in a message and 
the sister came to greet our guest and said, "I am glad 
to say your husband is much better. I'll tell him you 
are here." When she came back she said she had asked 
the invalid, "What would you like best in all the 
world?" Without a moment's hesitation he replied, 
"To go back to Blighty, Sister." "Blighty"— how 
many of those who use it realise the meaning of 
the word? It comes from the Indian "Vilayhti" and 
means "The home across the sea." "Blighty," said the 
sister, "you know that's impossible. What would you 
like next best?" "To see my wife," was the prompt 
reply. "And what would you say if I told you your 
wife was waiting outside to see you?" queried the sister 
as she moved from his bedside and opened the door. 
Yes, to these people many thousands of them, the Red 



"LES PARENTS BLESSEES" 103 

Triangle has indeed been as a Great Mother Hen at a 
time when they most needed its care. We are all very 
much like big children, and to all of us there are times 
when we need someone to take us by the hand and 
speak words of consolation and good cheer. 



CHAPTER X 

CELLARS AND DUG-OUTS ON THE 
WESTERN FRONT 



CHAPTER X 

CELLARS AND DUG-OUTS ON THE WESTERN FRONT 

The work of this Young Men's Christian Association has sunk 
so deep into the minds and into the lives of our fellow country- 
men that its work in the future can never be diminished and 
must be extended. And it is going to do more, to my mind, than 
simply minister to the wants of the men in camp ; it is going 
to be a bond between this country and the great Englands be- 
yond the sea. — The Right Hon. The Earl of Derby, K.G., 
G.C.V.O. 

UNLESS one has seen for oneself the ravages of 
war, it is impossible to conceive the horror and desola- 
tion of a place like Ypres. Before the war it was one 
of the most beautiful cities in Europe, to-day it is 
nothing more than a heap of ruins. It is enough to 
make even the most unemotional of men cry, to stand 
in that once beautiful Cloth Hall Square and see how 
complete is the destruction — not one house, not a single 
room left intact — everything destroyed beyond recog- 
nition. And what of the Y. M. C. A. in Ypres? There 
we found the Red Triangle standing erect amid the 
ruins, and following the hand that pointed down we 
came to a little cellar Y. M. C. A. — only a cellar and 
yet it had been a source of helpfulness and inspiration 
to tens of thousands of our brave men. It was won- 
derfully fitted up, contained a small circulating library, 
piano and everything needed for the canteen side of 
things. Not only that, it was a centre to work from. 

107 



108 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

Between the cellar and the enemy were nine dug-outs at 
advanced stations. As these were all evacuated by order 
of the Military during the German offensive in April, 
19 18, there can be no objection to their location being 
indicated. The first consisted of a ruined house and a 
Nissen hut at the Asylum; the second was at ''Salva- 
tion Corner," and the third at Dead End, on the Canal 
Bank. There was a Y. M. C. A. at Wells Cross Roads, 
another at St. Jean and Wiel, and a sixth at Potyze 
Chateau. The seventh had a homely ring about it for 
it was situated at "Oxford Circus," the eighth was at 
St. Julien, the ninth at Lille Gate (Ypres), and the 
tenth was the cellar Y. M. C. A. at the corner of Lille 
Road referred to above. For many months it was the 
centre of the social life of the stricken town, but in 
August, 191 7, it received a direct hit from an enemy 
shell and was knocked in. This dug-out work is in- 
tensely interesting, though naturally it has its limita- 
tions. Large meetings are, of course, impossible; 
sometimes even the singing of a hymn would be suffi- 
cient to attract the attention of Fritz, but the man who 
is resourceful and courageous and who can see an 
opportunity for Christian service in meeting the com- 
mon everyday needs of men, will find endless oppor- 
tunities of putting in a word for the Master — and the 
sordid dug-out under shell-fire, can easily be trans- 
formed into a temple to His praise, an enquiry room 
where resolutions are made that change the lives of 
men and help the soldier to realise that he is called to 
be a crusader. 

In the Red Triangle dug-outs of the Ypres salient, 



CELLARS AND DUG-OUTS 109 

from three to four thousand bloaters were supplied to 
the troops week by week; 1,500 kilos of apples and 
more than 100,000 eggs! It was a miracle how these 
latter were collected in the villages behind the line. 
Corps provided a lorry and two drivers for five months 
to bring them into Ypres, and also assisted us with 
thirty orderlies. It was that timely help that made our 
work possible. It would be difficult to overestimate the 
boon to the troops of this variety to their diet. Iron 
rations will keep body and soul together but it is the 
little extra that helps so much in keeping up the health 
and spirits of the men. They would follow the egg 
lorry for a mile and gladly pay the three-pence each 
that the eggs cost. In February, 19 18, the turnover 
from the Red Triangle centres round Ypres amounted 
to 245,000 francs, whilst in March it had risen to 260,- 
000. For many weeks in this salient we gave away 
from five to six thousand gallons of hot drinks each 
week. All honour to the band of Y. M. C. A. leaders 
who kept the Red Triangle flag flying under these diffi- 
cult conditions. For six weeks one of our leaders was 
unable to leave his cellar home owing to the incessant 
shelling and bombing of the immediate vicinity. These 
were men who "counted not their own lives dear unto 
them" but were ready to take any risk and to put up 
with any personal inconvenience that they might serve 
the country they loved — yes, and they too endured "as 
seeing Him who is invisible." 

The King, who is the Patron of the Y. M. C. A. and 
very keenly interested in the work, visited our tiny 
centre at Messines. The dug-out at Wytschaete was 



110 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

knocked out and the Red Triangle cellar at Meroc, just 
behind Loos, was destroyed by a direct hit. The latter 
was approached by a long communication trench and 
was fitted up in the ordinary way — a few tables and 
chairs, reading and writing materials, games, pictures 
and the inevitable and always appreciated piano. A 
few days before we were there a dud shell from one of 
the German "heavies" fell only two or three yards in 
front of the divisional secretary's car. The cellar was 
immediately under a ruined Brasserie and in the 
grounds of the latter was a solitary German grave. 
The story goes that in the early days of the war enemy 
patrols passed through Meroc, and a shot alleged to 
have been fired from a window of the Brasserie found 
its billet in one of the Huns. In revenge the Germans 
killed every man, woman and child in the Brasserie. In 
striking contrast was the story told us by the matron of 
one of our splendid British hospitals. "Every one in 
this ward is desperately wounded and too ill to travel. 
All in that row," said she, pointing, "are Germans. 
Yesterday a man occupying one of those beds lay dy- 
ing, and could not make his head comfortable. I went 
into the next ward and said to the Tommies, 'Here's a 
German dying, will one of you lend him your pillow ?' 
Without a moment's hesitation," said she, "every one 
of those dangerously wounded Britishers whipped out 
his pillow to help his dying enemy." That is the spirit 
of our men and that accounts quite as" much as their 
valour, for the fact that they have won the respect even 
of an enemy trained from infancy to regard the British 
soldier as an object of scorn and derision. 



CHAPTER XI 
CAMEOS FROM FRANCE 



CHAPTER XI 



CAMEOS FROM FRANCE 



"My son, who is somewhere in France, tells me what a real 
comfort your Y. M. C. A. has been to him from the time he 

started his training at , and all through his stopping 

places almost up to the trenches." 

A STRIKING feature of the war work of the 
Y. M. C. A. has been the promptness with which a 
new situation has been seized and a new opening en- 
tered. There has been an utter absence of red tape 
and freedom of action has been given to all accredited 
representatives of the Association. The Red Triangle 
has always been first in the field and has been likened 
to a Tank in its knack of overcoming apparently in- 
superable obstacles. The day after the British troops 
first entered Bapaume a Y. M. C. A. man appeared 
leading a packhorse loaded up with cigarettes, biscuits 
and dolly cakes which he distributed amongst the 
troops. He had got a foothold for the Association, 
and that foothold was retained until Bapaume was 

evacuated. 

* * * 

In the British offensive in the early days of August, 
19 1 8, a noted war correspondent at the front wrote : 

"In one part of the line three hours after the troops 
reached their final objective they were eating a hot 
breakfast as part of the programme of the day. The 

113 



114 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

familiar, ever-welcome sign of the 'Y. M. C. A.' blos- 
somed on a roofless French cafe six miles within the 
crumpled German line, before the tanks had finished 
chasing the nth Corps staff out of Framerville and 
down the Peronne road. Food, and even books and 
paper, were set out under the Red Triangle for tired 
and hungry fighting men, as they trooped into the 
rickety building to eat and be refreshed in a room 
carpeted with German papers." 

* * j{c 

What thrilling memories the name of Arras will 
always conjure up in the minds of Y. M. C. A. workers 
who served in that city of ruins ! One wrote home the 
day after a strong attack by the British on the enemy 
lines. He wrote the letter from a dug-out, which only 
the day before was occupied by the Huns, in which he 
was carrying on for the Y. M. C. A. So precipitate 
was their flight that he partook of the repast served 
up by German cooks for German officers. At one time 
the rival trenches were in places less than ten yards 
apart! It was here that Sir Douglas Haig personally 
complimented the Association on the work its repre- 
sentatives were doing on the field of battle. 

The most memorable motor run we ever had was 
from Souastre to Arras in 191 6. The hut was closed 
when we reached Souastre in the morning, the leader 
having received a letter from the Town Major politely 
requesting him to close it from 7.30 a. m., as it was 
expected that the Huns would strafe the village at 
8 a. m. and again at 4.30, and so it happened. This 
seemed strange as the village had not been strafed of 
late. How could the British have known when Fritz 



CAMEOS FROM FRANCE 115 

would fire again? It seemed uncanny until a strange 
unwritten reciprocal working arrangement between 
friend and foe was explained, which means in effect 
that Fritz refrains from bombing or bombarding 

A , three or four miles behind the British lines, 

if Tommy leaves village B , behind his lines alone, 

and vice versa. As both villages are used as billets 
for the rival armies both have been glad at times to 
honour this understanding. The run from Souastre 
to the railhead at Saulty was uneventful. Night was 
closing in as we left for Arras and there was no moon. 
For twenty kilometres or more we had to travel with 
lights extinguished. We were less than a mile from the 
enemy trenches, which ran parallel to the road we were 
traversing. "Verey" lights, or star shells, sent up by 
the enemy, continually made everything as light as day 
for the few seconds they were in the air. There were 
mysterious noises from the gun emplacements that ran 
along the roadside, and mysterious shapes loomed up 
ahead of us from time to time as we overhauled and 
passed transport wagons and the like. At last we 
reached our destination, and it was the writer's first 
visit to a town of considerable size that had been 
wrecked by bombardment. There were barricades in 
the streets, shell-holes and ruins everywhere. We 
motored through the famous Grand Place and passed 
through street after street in that city of the dead, 
until turning a corner we entered a narrow street near 
the ruined Cathedral, and hearing a piano playing rag- 
time it was obvious that we were near the Y. M. C. A. 
The memory of that old Chateau in the narrow street 



116 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

will always remain with us as we saw it then — the 
entrance hall, where free hot drinks were being dis- 
pensed ; the canteen crammed with British soldiers, in- 
cluding many "Bantams," who were then stationed at 
Arras ; the little concert room with possibly a hundred 
men gathered round a piano singing choruses and 
snatches of songs or listening to the rag-time, and ac- 
companying it at times by whistling the refrain or 
stamping on the floor. Another crowd upstairs had 
been entertained to a lantern lecture, and the day's pro- 
gramme was being concluded with family prayers. As 
we lay awake that night we heard many familiar noises 
that sounded strange there — a cat call, the cry of a 
baby, whilst ever and anon a shell would go shrieking 
over the town. In the morning we visited the ruined 
Cathedral, which was a sight to make men or angels 
weep, but even there one saw erect amid the ruins, at 
the highest point, the Cross, the emblem of our Chris- 
tian faith, and one knew that though it might be 
by way of the Cross, yet truth and freedom would 

triumph in the end. 

* * * 

A well-known correspondent, writing from British 
Headquarters in France to the "Daily Mail," on 
August 13th, 191 8, told the story of a village under 
shell-fire and still within reach of machine-gun bullets, 
in which was a German notice board pointing to 
an incinerator, and wrote, "I hear from an officer 
who visited the spot again a day later that another 
notice, 'This way to the Y. M. C. A.,' was added. A 
dashing Cavalry Officer, very much of the old school, 



CAMEOS FROM FRANCE 117 

possessing a voice that would carry two miles, begged 
me with great earnestness to do him one service, 
Would I mention the Y. M. C. A. ?' It had provided 
his men with hot coffee before riding out." That is 
the kind of service the Red Triangle has the privilege 
of rendering to our fighting men in the course of prac- 
tically every battle. 

* * * 

The Bois Caree, in 19 16, was a very unhealthy spot. 
At the edge of a wood in a tiny natural amphitheatre 
the Y. M. C. A. had one of its outposts. An orderly 
was usually in charge, and day and night he kept up 
a good supply of hot drinks for free distribution to 
the troops. There they could buy biscuits, cigarettes, 
soap and other necessaries, or receive free of charge 
the ever-welcome writing paper and materials. The 
supervising secretary, visiting the dug-out one day in 
the course of his rounds, found it had been blown in 
by a big shell. The orderly was terribly wounded, 
part of his side having been blown away, but smiling 
amid his agony, he said, "The money's safe here, sir I" 
Careless of himself the brave fellow's first considera- 
tion was to safeguard the money in the Y. M. C. A. 
till. 

We have vivid recollections of our visit to the Bois 
Caree in 19 16. Late in the evening we reached Dicke- 
busch. The Y. M. C. A. was there in the main street 
of the little Belgian village, and immediately behind it 
was the ruined church. It was only a small strafed 
building in a ruined street on which the Red Triangle 
first made its appearance in Dickebusch, but the secre- 



118 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

tary held that to be the most convenient type of Y. M. 
C. A. building, "for," said he, "if it becomes too small, 
all you have to do is to knock a hole through the wall 
on either side, and take on additional houses." This 
was exactly what we had done and, unattractive as it 
was, the place drew crowds of men. At the Dicke- 
busch Y. M. C. A. we were provided with shrapnel and 
gas helmets and instructed in the use of the latter. A 

two-mile trudge across a duck-walk over "b y 

meadow" brought us to the famous Ridgewood Dug- 
outs. It was here that the Canadians lost their guns 
in the early days of the war, and afterwards so glori- 
ously regained them. We entered the wood at mid- 
night. A huge rat crossed our path, and as we entered 
the first of the Y. M. C. A. dug-outs where free cocoa 
was being dispensed in empty jam tins we remem- 
bered a yarn told us the day before by one of our 
workers. He had come to Ridgewood as a special 
speaker, and after the evening meeting lay down on 
the floor of the dug-out to sleep, but as he was begin- 
ning to feel drowsy, a huge rat ran over his legs, and 
later one passed across his face. With an electric 
flash-lamp he scared them away, but soon getting used 
to it they came on "in close formation." He lit a 
candle and a few minutes later the rat ran away with 
the candle — so he said! From the Ridgewood we 
went on to the Bois Caree. Shells were screaming 
overhead all the time, but it was not a long walk, 
though it provided many thrills. For a couple of hun- 
dred yards we were on open ground and within easy 
reach of the Hun snipers. Only two of us were allowed 



CAMEOS FROM FRANCE 119 

to pass at a time, and my guide and I had to keep 
fifty yards apart, and when a "Verey" light went up, 
had to stand absolutely still until it fell to earth and 
its light was extinguished. Weird things those star 
shells! They shoot up to a good height like rockets, 
burst into brilliant light, poise in mid-air and gradually 
shimmer down and out. A few minutes brought us 
to the shelter of a ruined Brasserie, and from its fur- 
ther side we entered the communication trenches and 
thus passed to the Bois Caree. Standing back to 
visualise the scene the Orderly caught my arm and 
pulled me into the shelter of the dug-out, a second 
later came the patter of machine-gun bullets on the 
sandbags where we had stood not ten seconds before. 
There was something fascinating about that little dug- 
out Y. M. C. A., with its caterer's boiler, urns and 
stores, and it is sad to think that since then it has been 
destroyed by shell-fire. 

A year later we revisited that old Brasserie. There 
was little of it left. The central hall remained and the 
Red Triangle was on it, marking it out as a centre for 
walking wounded. A dressing station had been rigged 
up in the cellar underneath. 

A distinguished preacher serving with the Y. M. 
C. A. conducted a memorable Watchnight service in 
the Ridgewood. Two or three hundred men gathered 
round and listened with marked attention. A shell 
burst quite close during the prayer, and every man 
instinctively glanced up to see the effect on the padre. 
He carried on exactly as if nothing had happened and 
won his way to every heart. 



CHAPTER XII 
STORIES OF "LE TRIANGLE ROUGE" 



CHAPTER XII 

STORIES OF "LE TRIANGLE ROUGE" 

"It is with very great pleasure I send a small contribution 
(3/ — ) to the Y. M. C. A. funds, and only wish it could match 
my inclination. Few things have brought so much comfort to 
the parents at home as the knowledge of the splendid work done 
by your organisation. As one boy puts it, 'When we get inside 
the Y. M. C. A. hut we feel as if we are at home again.' " 

AT the close of a Y. M. C. A. Conference held in 
the Hotel McMahon in Paris, a French lady came tim- 
idly forward with a lovely bouquet of red roses and in 
a pretty little speech presented them as a thankoflering 
for the war work of the Y. M. C. A. It was the gift 
of a mother who had four sons serving with the British 
army. Those flowers have long since faded but the 
kind thought that prompted them will always remain a 

gracious memory. 

* * * 

A soldier home on leave brought an interesting 
souvenir of the first "Threapwood" hut, which did such 
good work in the Ploegsteert Woods, but was ulti- 
mately destroyed by shell-fire — a 2 franc and a 50 
centimes piece which had become welded together in 
the heat of the conflagration. Another Tommy saw a 
fierce fight take place between British and Germans, 
actually inside the hut at Neuve Eglise. The incident 

123 



124 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

that seemed to have appealed most strongly to his im- 
agination was the fact that the pictures were still hang- 
ing on the walls. 

It is interesting to notice the curious freaks of dud 
shells. Outside the hut at Tilloy we saw one which 
had pierced its way through the trunk of a tree with- 
out exploding — the nose of the shell protruded at the 
other side of the trunk, the shell itself remaining firmly 

embedded in the tree. 

* * * 

An Australian officer one day sauntered into the 
"Crystal Palace," an important Y. M. C. A. centre in 
Havre. He was interested and well he might be. It 
is a huge building and swarms of men assemble there 
in the evenings. The Australian's interest took a prac- 
tical form. Before leaving he handed two one-pound 
notes to the leader expressing regret that he could not 
make it more, and adding, "I think you Y. M. C. A. 
people will make a religious man of me before the war 
is over." "What do you mean?" said the secretary. 
"Well," said he, "I have never had any use for religion, 

but at the battle of I felt down and out. I 

didn't care much if the Boche killed me. I had had 
nothing to eat for days — when suddenly a Y. M. C. A. 
man appeared, heaven knows where he came from, but 
he was there right enough, and he handed me a good 
hot drink, a packet of biscuits and some cigarettes. 
Yes," said he, "I believe you Y. M. C. A. men will 
make a religious man of me before you have finished." 
* * * 

In war-time fortunately, people often forget their 



"LE TRIANGLE ROUGE" 125 

differences and in Paris one of our splendid British 
soldiers, who was a Roman Catholic, lay badly 
wounded and terribly ill. He wanted to confess but 
there was no English Priest near. Ultimately a French 
Priest confessed and absolved him through an Ameri- 
can Y. M. C. A. lady — a Protestant — who acted as 
interpreter. 

In the early days of the war, a valued worker on 
Salisbury Plain was the grandson of a famous Cornish 
revivalist. He was an ordained man and a very strong 
Protestant. He went out to France later on as a Chap- 
lain of the United Board. Returning home on fur- 
lough he called at Headquarters and told his expe- 
riences on the battlefield. "You will be surprised," said 
he, "when I tell you that my greatest friend in Flanders 
was a Roman Catholic Padre. He was one of the best 
men I ever knew, and we had an excellent working ar- 
rangement. On the battlefield if I came across any of 
his men, I would hand them on to him, and he would 
pass my men on to me. If he were not at hand, I would 
try my best to help the dying Roman Catholic soldier 
as I thought my friend would have helped him had he 
been there, and vice versa. I shall never forget," said 
he, "my last night in Flanders and our affectionate 
farewell. You know how strong a Protestant I have 
always been and my convictions have never been 
stronger than they are to-day, but see this," — and he 
unbuttoned his tunic and brought out a Crucifix which 
was hanging from his neck — "this was the parting gift 
of my Roman Catholic friend and as long as I live I 



126 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

shall keep it as one of my most treasured possessions." 
* * * 

As a rule there is not much romance in the story of a 
department that concerns itself with nothing but trad- 
ing. But the story of the growth and development of 
the trading department of the Red Triangle is a ro- 
mance. All along we have discouraged trading for 
trading's sake in our huts, but in a crisis like the one 
brought about by the war, it is not for each individual 
or organisation to pick and choose, but to do what is 
needed by the state, and on that principle we have had 
to develop the trading side of our work enormously. 
Home and overseas the department has been brilliantly 
led by men animated with the highest ideals of Chris- 
tian service, who have been ready to take any risks and 
whenever necessary to work day and night. Their task 
has been colossal and they have done magnificently. 
During the six months ending 21st of May, 191 5, 
our turnover in France amounted to £32,594 whilst 
three years later the six months turnover had risen to 
£680,000. 

It was thrilling work during the German advance 
in March, 19 18, chasing our ever-moving centres 
in the Somme area and keeping up their supplies or 
maintaining touch with Amiens during those terrible 
days, when for a whole week more than £600 daily was 
taken in the little "Joy" hut outside the Central Station. 
That meant day and night work, at our Base Stores 
in France, and thanks to the cordial co-operation of 
the military we were able to send forward 200 trucks 
from one port alone containing 45,000 cases or 1,500 



"LE TRIANGLE ROUGE" 127 

tons of food-stuffs, smokes and ingredients for hot 
drinks — tea, coffee and cocoa. From December, 1914, 
to the middle of May, 1918,-1,350,000 cases were 
handled by our Stores in France representing the 
double handling of 50,500 tons of goods. During the 
retreat Y. M. C. A. motor lorries travelled from 80 to 
90 miles a day. The motor drivers would often finish 
up the day's work utterly exhausted. One boy of 
iy l / 2 years did 40 miles in a day and, in addition, 
loaded and unloaded his lorry. For the six months 
ending November 30th, 19 17, our free gifts to the 
troops in France amounted to £157,000. This figure 
does not include the cost of huts and equipment, nor 
yet the general expenditure on the work — but it em- 
braces the cost of the hostels for the Relatives of 
Wounded, and free food and drink for the walking 
wounded and for the men serving in advanced posi- 
tions. 

# * * 

A distinguished officer of the Danish Army called at 
the headquarters of the British Y. M. C. A. after a 
visit to France to acquaint himself with the history of 
our war work : "One day I stood on Messines Ridge," 
said he, "and all around me was the devastation caused 
by the war, shells were to be seen bursting all round, ac- 
companied by the deafening roar of the big guns. 
Overhead amidst the din could be heard the whirr of 
the engines of the German and Allied fighting ma- 
chines. I felt thrilled to think I was in the midst of 
the greatest battle of history. Stepping aside a few 
yards I was surprised to find a dug-out with the Red 






128 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

Triangle sign. I could only exclaim, "What, these 

people here! ! !" 

* * * 

One of the funniest sights we saw in France was that 
of a tiny British Corporal marching behind ten stal- 
wart German prisoners, escorting them back to their 
quarters after they had finished orderly duty in one of 
our tents. The humour of the situation evidently ap- 
pealed to him for he winked as he passed us — quite an 
unsoldierly thing to do. 

* * * 

Tommy has a knack of making himself comfortable, 
though his surroundings very often do not naturally 
suggest comfort. It is surprising what a snug bed and 
living room combined can be made out of a discarded 
hen house! A barn occupied by men of the Horse 
Guards Blue was ingeniously rigged up by its tempo- 
rary tenants. One wall was missing and was made up 
with sacking — on the other side of this flimsy partition 
were the horses. The harness was hung round the 
walls, and four stakes driven into the ground for each 
bed. The wire that had bound hay bales had been 
ingeniously woven into wire mattresses stretched from 
stake to stake; over it was stretched the sacking, also 
from hay bales — and over that again was a good thick 
layer of straw. There is never anything to be gained 
by grumbling but everything by taking things cheer- 
fully as they come and making the best of one's circum- 
stances. 

* * * 

A Y. M. C. A. hut is a poor substitute for home, but 



"LE TRIANGLE ROUGE" 129 

our aim is to make every Y. M. C. A. as much like 
home as it is possible for it to be. It is surprising how 
much can be done by pictures, decorations and flowers 
to give the home touch. A canary singing over the 
counter; a cat on the hearth; a bunch of primroses or 
forget-me-nots; a smile or a word of welcome; a wo- 
man's voice; a piano; family prayers at the close of 
the day— these are some of the things that count, and 
are numbered amongst the greatest assets of the Red 

Triangle. 

* * * 

It is strange how often scenes and sounds of war and 
peace are intermingled. It is a common sight to see 
men and women going unconcernedly about their work, 
and children playing in towns that are habitually 
shelled or bombed. Stranger still is it to note the habits 
of the wild birds constructing their nests amid scenes 
of war and in localities subject to constant bombard- 
ment. The Y. M. C. A. hut in Ploegstert Wood was 
destroyed during a three hours' bombardment one 
night in May, 1916, but whenever there came a few 
seconds' pause in the booming of the guns, the nightin- 
gales sang as unconcernedly as in the piping times 
of peace. We once heard near Hersin a sort of duet 
between a cuckoo and a big gun ; the bird punctuating 
with its call the thunder of the guns, and as stated 
elsewhere whilst the barrage was in full swing the 
thrushes on Kemmel, only a few hundred yards behind 
the guns, sang as sweetly and merrily as in the lanes 
and gardens of England. In the course of a brief visit 
to the American front in France we called to see a 



130 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

little Y. M. C. A. shanty, badly strafed, within a mile 
or so of the enemy. Through the open window, from 
which all glass had long since vanished, a swallow 
entered, and perching on a wire stretched across the 
room carolled joyously its simple little song — a mes- 
sage truly of peace and eternal hope! 

* * * 

The "Walthamstow" hut at Remy had to be tem- 
porarily abandoned during the German offensive. The 
leader in charge transferred operations to a dug-out 
across the way, which adjoined a clearing station. The 
inevitable caterer's boiler enabled him to keep up a 
constant supply of hot tea and coffee for the wounded. 
An Australian, terribly mutilated, was brought in. 
A happy smile, a few cheery words and a cup of 
steaming hot cocoa made him feel he had met a 
friend* — and speaking slowly, in a voice that was 
scarcely louder than a whisper, he said, "I wonder why 
I am allowed to suffer like this." "I know why," re- 
plied the Y. M. C. A. man. "You are suffering like this 
so that two women I love — my mother and my sister 
— may live in peace and safety in the North of London. 
If it were not for the sacrifices you and thousands of 
other Boys are making out here, that would be im- 
possible. The soldier lad was quiet for some time and 
then whispered to his new-found friend — "I'm content 
to go on suffering !" 

* * * 

The same secretary tells an interesting story of one 
of the bitter fights round Passchendaele. The wounded 
were being brought in on stretchers and he was on the 



"LE TRIANGLE ROUGE" 131 

spot with hot drinks for the boys. The guns were quiet 
for a moment and a voice was heard singing clearly 
and distinctly: 

"Lead, kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom ; 

Lead Thou me on. 
The night is dark, and I am far from home ; 

Lead Thou me on ! 
Keep Thou my feet ; I do not ask to see 
The distant scene ; one step enough for me." 



The singer was a private, badly wounded and being 
carried in on a stretcher. The subsequent verses were 
drowned in the roar of battle, but those standing round 
could see from the movement of the wounded man's 
lips that he was still singing. Thus it is possible for 
a man to find his Saviour near him even amid the 
horror and noise of war. 

* * * 

One day in 191 7 we stood outside a little Y. M. C. A. 
at Erquingham, lost during the German advance in the 
following spring, and standing there we heard "Grand- 
mother" speak. "Grandmother" it should be explained 
was a mighty howitzer. It was concealed under an 
improvised shed carefully camouflaged, and was 
brought out on rails, in a horizontal position. As we 
watched, it was brought to the vertical and out shot a 
tongue of flame. The projectile was so huge we could 
watch its flight for miles until it disappeared from view 
in the distance. Listening intently we could hear the 
explosion in the enemy's lines. Many a Y. M. C. A. 



132 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

on the Western Front is situated right amid the guns 
and when they are fired one knows it — " Grandmother" 
speaking, seems to shake the very foundations of the 
earth. 



CHAPTER XIII 
THE RED TRIANGLE IN THE EAST 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE RED TRIANGLE IN THE EAST 

You and your Association seem to me to be truly hi ' : ng the 
nail on the head and working for the good of our soldier lads 
one and all. I have watched the Y. M. C. A. procedure at 
many camps, and have found it exactly adapted to the wants 
of large numbers of young men taken temporarily away from 
their homes and normal associations. — General Sir Ian Hamil- 
ton. 

THE Macedonian call, "Come over and help us," 
has been repeated in our own days and has come from 
near and far East. The Red Triangle has been quick 
to respond to the call, and a few incidents of its work 
are recorded here, though the story itself must be told 
after the war. The Chief Executive Officer of the 
Indian National Council is himself an Indian, and not 
only has he with the assistance of his Council been 
responsible for the great work of the Red Triangle in 
India, but also for the extensive programme of work 
the Association has undertaken for Indian troops in 
East Africa, Mesopotamia and Europe. In addition 
to work for British troops in India, the Y. M. C. A. 
has established work for Indian troops in a number 
of Cantonments, where service parallel to that under- 
taken for British troops is carried on with the excep- 
tion that no religious work is done, unless in the case 
of Christian Sepoys. 

135 



136 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

The number of branches with British troops on 
August ist, 19 1 7, was 43, worked by 40 European 
and American and 9 Indian Secretaries, and 1 honor- 
ary lady secretary. With Indian troops there were 
8 branches worked by 1 European and 8 Indian Secre- 
taries. These figures do not include the temporary 
work undertaken by the Army Y. M. C. A. with the 
Waziristan Field Force, which terminated during 
August, 191 7, and which included 4 British and 4 
Indian branches, with 3 European and 2 Indian Secre- 
taries. There was also one European Secretary at 
Headquarters on August ist, 191 7, for Army work 
in India; and in addition Secretaries engaged in 
civilian Y. M. C. A. work in several stations gave part 
of their time to Army work as did many voluntary 
workers. 

In Burma a large Barrack Room, made of wood and 
bamboo with a grass thatched roof, houses the Asso- 
ciation which works amongst the men of the newly 
formed Burmese regiments. The whole building is 
on piles, and stands about six feet off the ground, thus 
preventing snakes and other unwelcome guests from 
coming inside. The regiments comprise not only Bur- 
mans, but Karens, Chinese and Arakanese. Most of 
the men are from the deep jungle, and very few of 
them can read or write. The gramophone interests 
them enormously, and they look inside it to see who is 
producing the sound, and will sit round in a circle 
listening to it for hours. Picture papers interest them, 
but usually they prefer holding the pictures upside 
down. The better educated men write a good deal 



RED TRIANGLE IN THE EAST 137 

on the free note-paper provided by the Y. M. C. A. 
Quartettes are sung by Karen and Chinese Christians. 
At the far end of the building is a huge image of the 
Buddha, which was there before we came, and is used 
by some of the boys as a sort of chapel for private 
devotions. The boys have to take their choice between 
Christianity and Buddhism, and as we have three 
exceptionally good lamps there is much more light at 
the Y. M. C. A. end of the hall, and we have the better 
attendance in numbers at all events. 

Egypt, handicapped at first through lack of money, 
has also done magnificently. There is no more im- 
portant centre of Association activity in the world 
than the Esbekia Gardens in Cairo. Ever since the 
early days of the war, thousands of khaki-clad 
warriors have congregated night after night in these 
lovely gardens, which under other auspices might 
easily have been one of the danger spots of Cairo, in- 
stead of a kind of modern "City of Refuge" from the 
temptations of the city. The Anzac hostel is another 
striking feature of the work in Cairo. In June, 191 7, 
no fewer than 6,893 soldiers slept in it, and that was 
not by any means a record month. The money for 
the purchase of this hostel as the permanent property 
of the Y. M. C. A., has been subscribed by members 
of the Baltic, but the discovery of the existence of a 
third mortgage has delayed the completion of the pur- 
chase. At Alexandria; Khartoum; Port Soudan, on 
both sides of the Canal and far into the Sinai Penin- 
sula, the Association outposts have been busy. A Red 
Triangle hut in the desert was destroyed by a bomb 



138 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

dropped from a hostile aeroplane, but when the smoke 
subsided the centre pole was still standing and the 
Association flag flying. The Huts at Kantara are 
amongst the finest in the world, and neither here nor 
anywhere else has it been necessary to put up a notice 
intimating that the Y. M. C. A. is "open to all." 
Tommy knows it and regards the Red Triangle as his 
own peculiar possession. One cannot conceive of any 
place on earth where it is more needed than in one of 
these desert camps, where there is nothing to do, no- 
where to go and nothing to see but endless stretches of 
monotonous and dreary sand. Under such circum- 
stances the Red Triangle is Tommy's tuck shop; his 
Church — with the Chaplain as the Parson; his post 
office; concert hall; social room; school, and home. 
This is true of every fighting front, and that is why 
the Association has won for itself a lasting place in the 
affections of the manhood of the Empire. 

A young soldier writing home the day after his 
arrival in Mesopotamia said the first thing he struck 
on landing was the welcome sign of the Red Triangle. 
"And," said he, "if we are ordered next to the North 
Pole, I am sure we shall find it there!" The Y. M. 
C. A. Secretary for Mesopotamia tells of a visit he 
paid to a centre on the way to Bagdad. It was a big 
bare marquee, crammed with men, with very little 
furniture in it — the difficulties of transport being so 
great in those days — just half a dozen tables and a 
few chairs, a heap of books and a number of games. 
There were six inches of dust all over the floor, and 
the temperature was 120 in the shade, yet one thing 



RED TRIANGLE IN THE EAST 139 

that attracted the men to the Y. M. C. A. marquee was 
that it enabled them to escape the heat of their own 
bell tents. Through the kindness of a generous friend, 
a Red Triangle motor launch has since then been 
provided for use on the Tigris and has greatly simpli- 
fied transport. The central Y. M. C. A. at Bagdad 
is one of the best of our war buildings, and is situated 
on the banks of the Tigris. An Association centre has 
been established on the reputed site of the Garden of 
Eden. 

* * * 

The story of the Red Triangle in Palestine is an epic 
in itself. For months the Association had occupied 
dug-outs along the Palestine front. In those days one 
secretary devoted the whole of his time to making 
personal purchases for Officers and men who could 
not themselves get away to any centre of civilisation 
to make purchases on their own account. Gaza was 
the first centre occupied in the Holy Land ; Beersheba, 
Jaffa and Jerusalem being occupied later. At Jaffa 
the former German Consulate was fitted up as a Y. M. 
C. A., and the Red Triangle as a matter of course 
made its appearance on a big building in Jerusalem. 
Malta was a very important centre in the early days 
of the war, and the Y. M. C. A. flourished in its numer- 
ous hospital camps. In Macedonia the work has been 
difficult, but greatly appreciated in Salonica itself as 
well as on the Varda and the Struma. The need has 
been urgent, and every effort has been made to meet 
that need. Transport difficulties have led to inevitable 
delays in the delivery of stores and equipment, but 



140 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

there are more than 40 centres now, including some for 
Serbian soldiers. 

* * * 

The Y. M. C. A. had its part in the ill-fated expedi- 
tion to the Dardanelles. Mudros, Imbros and Tenedos 
were centres of importance in those days, and the Red 
Triangle was at work in each island. The urgent need 
of the troops was for soft drinks, and those ordinary 
canteen supplies that give variety to the soldiers' menu 
and make the official rations palatable. The official 
canteens were powerless to meet the demand. We 
were anxious to help, but transport was the difficulty. 
At last, through the kindness of another generous 
friend, we were enabled to charter the S. S. "Nero/' of 
the Wilson Line, and despatch it with a cargo of can- 
teen supplies to the value of eleven thousand pounds to 
Mudros. A few days after its arrival the Peninsula 
was evacuated, but whilst they were there the men 
availed themselves to the full of the opportunity of 
buying supplementary food at British prices. When 
the "Nero" reached Mudros, Greek vendors were sell- 
ing our Tommies tinned fruit at twelve shillings a tin 
and other prices were correspondingly high. 

In the centre of an official photograph of Anzacs 
showing the bay, the camp and the surrounding sand 
hills are to be seen the letters "Y. M. C. A." They ap- 
pear on a tiny marquee, and close to it was a big dug- 
out, measuring 30x19 ft., in which the Red Triangle 
carried through its programme of friendliness and 
good cheer, always under shell-fire. One night a frag- 
ment of a Turkish shell weighing twelve and a half 



RED TRIANGLE IN THE EAST 141 

pounds found its way through the roof of that dug-out. 
At Cape Helles there were three tiny tents fastened end 
on end. Had they been larger they could scarcely have 
escaped the attention of "Asiatic Annie," the big 
Turkish gun that dominated the position. As it was, 
the Officer Commanding the advanced base at Lan- 
cashire Landing wrote to Headquarters to say how 
much the men appreciated those tents, and explained 
that the previous day an eight-inch high explosive shell 
from a Turkish gun had burst in the centre of the 
middle tent and completely destroyed it. "Fortu- 
nately," said he, "it didn't damage the piano, and still 
more fortunately," he added, "it didn't harm the 
gramophone." That was curious, and we thought of 
some of the gramophones we had known, and felt it 
would have been no disaster if a shell had destroyed 
the lot ! This gramophone was different, however, for 
it had only just been wound up when the shell burst, 
but regardless of the bustle and confusion caused by 
the explosion it kept on playing until it had finished 
the last note of the tune ! What a splendid object les- 
son for the Allies, to stick to the job they have on 
hand to the finish, or in other words, till victory crowns 
their efforts. Many months after the incident here 
recorded the Irish Y. M. C. A. was invited to open up 
at Rathdrum. The Secretary responsible interviewed 
the O. C, and learning that he was a Catholic, asked 
politely if he knew the work of the Y. M. C. A. "In- 
deed I do," was the reply, "I was at Cape Helles when 
a shell burst in your tent. I was the officer in charge, 
and it was my duty to remove casualties. I went up 



142 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

to the tents fearing the worst, and shall never forget 
the smiling face of the Y. M. C. A. man behind the 
counter. It won me over completely." 

* * * 

A distinguished officer wrote : 

"Your work has been of inestimable value to the 
troops, filling a gap which it is impossible for the Mili- 
tary Authorities to provide for. 'Always first up, 
always working hard, and always welcome' — the Red 
Triangle will always be gratefully remembered by the 
soldiers in the Great War." 



CHAPTER XIV 
SIDE LINES OF THE RED TRIANGLE 



CHAPTER XIV 

SIDE LINES OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

The Y. M. C. A. is doing excellent work — its efforts are ap- 
preciated immensely by all ranks in this force. Experience of 
Y. M. C. A. work in the Army has long since convinced me how 
invaluable its services are to us both in peace and war. — The 
Late Lieut. -General Sir Stanley Maude. 

THERE are numerous side lines to this work, that 
are important enough in themselves, the significance of 
which is scarcely realised by the general public, or even 
by those who are supporting the movement. Take for 
example the "Snapshots from Home" movement which 
represented the combined voluntary work of the 
photographers of the United Kingdom, organised under 
the Red Triangle. Upwards of 650,000 snapshots 
were sent out to soldiers and sailors on active service, 
each one bearing a message of love and a reminder of 
home. 

Field-Marshal, Sir Evelyn Wood, V. C, was one of 
the first to recognise the significance of the letter- writ- 
ing that is done on such a large scale in the Y. M. C. A. 
tents. The veteran Field-Marshal pointed out that the 
benefit was two-fold, first it occupied the time of the 
men, and secondly, it kept them in touch with their 

145 



146 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

homes, both matters of first importance. "That's what 
my Dad always puts on his letters to Mummy," said a 
little girl, pointing to the Red Triangle on the note- 
paper, when on a visit to the Crystal Palace. Twenty- 
five million pieces of stationery are distributed free of 
charge to the troops monthly by the Y. M. C. A., 
and in four years the total issued from headquar- 
ters amounted to upwards of nine hundred million 
pieces. Workers are often called upon to write let- 
ters for the men and the latter make all sorts of 
mistakes with their correspondence. Sometimes they 
stamp their letters but forget to address them, often 
they address them but forget the stamps. One lad 
was greatly excited and wanted the secretary in 
charge of the post office to rescue two letters he had 
posted earlier in the afternoon. When asked why he 
wanted them back he blushed like a schoolgirl and 
stammered out, "I've written two letters — one to my 
mother and the other to my sweetheart — and I've put 
them in the wrong envelopes !" The letters were not 
rescued, for more than five thousand had been posted 
before he discovered his mistake, and one wonders 
what happened ! 

* * * 

In Paris the Association has established a central 
enquiry bureau under the Hotel Edouard VII off the 
Grand Boulevarde. Two daily excursions are ar- 
ranged around Paris and two each week to Versailles. 
Representatives of the Red Triangle meet all the prin- 
cipal trains, day and night. The Hotel Florida is now 
run under the Association for British and Colonial 



SIDE LINES OF THE RED TRIANGLE 147 

Troops, whilst the American Y. M. C. A. has its head- 
quarters for France in the city and has taken over sev- 
eral large hotels and other buildings. 
* # * 

There is not the romance about the work of the Red 
Triangle in the munition areas that there is in what it 
is doing for our fighting men, but there can be no 
doubt as to its importance. The munitions workers as 
a class are as patriotic as any other class, but their work 
is drab, monotonous and strenuous. Little has been 
done officially to bring home to the man who makes the 
shell the relationship of his work to the man who fires 
it; or of the woman who works on the aeroplane to the 
man who is to fly in it, and yet the one can do nothing 
without the other. Things have changed for the better, 
but earlier in the war the output of munitions was 
positively hindered by the inadequacy of the canteen 
facilities available to the munition workers. The 
Y. M. C. A. was the first organisation to attempt to 
meet this need on anything like a large scale, and event- 
ually the work grew to considerable dimensions. Our 
work in the munition areas has been essentially a ladies' 
movement and has largely consisted of canteen work. 
Other features are being increasingly added, music 
and singing have been organised successfully, lectures 
have been greatly appreciated and several big athletic 
features introduced. Sporting events, also cricket and 
football leagues for munition workers have been well 
supported. It is intensely interesting to see these people 
at work and no other proof of British organising power 
and ability is necessary than a visit to some of the 



148 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

great works, many of which were not built for the pur- 
pose of manufacturing munitions of war and others 
improvised since the commencement of hostilities. At 
one place in which a canteen was formally opened by 
Princess Helena Victoria, who has taken the keenest 
interest in the development of our munitions depart- 
ment — from ordinary ship-building before the war 
great changes had taken place — a Super-Dreadnought 
was approaching completion, several T. B. D.'s were 
on the stocks, and some of the latest type of submarines 
were being built. Aeroplanes were being turned out at 
an incredible rate; shells made by the thousand; rigid 
air-ships were under construction, and perhaps as won- 
derful as anything — artificial feet were being made in 

the same workshops. 

* * * 

Incidentally might be mentioned here, the work the 
Association is doing for officers. There are six large 
Y. M. C. A. hostels in London for the accommodation 
of officers and one for officer-cadets. The young officer 
is often not blessed with too much of this world's 
goods, and hotel life is expensive and not always too 
comfortable. The success of these hostels has demon- 
strated the need. At Havre, Calais, St. Omer, Etaples 
and many centres up the line, as well as in home camps 
such as Ripon, we have the pleasure of doing something 
to serve the officer, and in many English camps we 
have opened huts for the exclusive use of officer-cadets. 
Gidea Park, Berkhampstead and Denham were 
amongst the first and most successful of these centres. 
The interned officers, U. C. O.'s, and men in Switzer- 



SIDE LINES OF THE RED TRIANGLE 149 

land and Holland are largely catered for by the Y. M. 

C. A. 

* * * 

It has been a pleasure to co-operate from time to time 
with the work of the R. A. M. C. and the Red Cross. 
In huts, stationed in hospitals and convalescent camps, 
in caring for the relatives of wounded, in work for the 
walking wounded and in many other ways the Red 
Cross and the Red Triangle have worked closely to- 
gether. An officer of the R. A. M. C, T., Captain C. 
S. Stewart Black, has written the following interesting 
description of the work of the Y. M. C. A. for the 
walking wounded : — "The O. C, The Divisional Walk- 
ing Wounded Collecting Post," was frankly worried as 
he sat in his tiny sandbagged hut with the D. A. D. M. 
S., and talked over all the problems which faced him in 
view of the "stunt" due to come off at dawn a few days 
later. "I've got plenty of dressings, and everything 
of that sort," he said, "and, of course, I can get plenty 
more brought up by returning ambulance cars. But 
there is the question of food — there's the rub. The 
numbers of wounded vary so greatly, and it's not so 
easy to lay in a huge reserve of grub as it is of dress- 
ings. Of course, I've done my best, but I'm rather 
worried." "If that is all your worry we'll soon put 
that right," answered the optimist of the staff. "We'll 
get the Y. M. C. A. chap on the job." "What can he 
do ?" "What can he not do rather ? You wait and see. 
Come along and we'll call on him now." 

In a little shed of corrugated iron by the side of a 
shell-swept road they found him. With his coat off 



150 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

and his sleeves rolled up, he was pushing across the 
counter steaming mugs of cocoa and piles of buns 
to the crowd of hungry and clamouring Tommies who 
besieged his premises. He was not a young man. Not 
the hardest hearted of Medical Boards would have 
passed him for service. To put it briefly he had no 
right in the world to be where he was, in one of the 
nastiest corners of that particularly nasty place, Flan- 
ders. But there he was, roughing it with the rest of 
them, and to judge from his smiling countenance, thor- 
oughly enjoying every particle of his experience. 
"Hallo, Major!", he called out cheerfully on seeing the 
two officers. "Anything I can do for you to-day." 
"Rather! A whole lot. Can we have a talk in your 
own place away from the crowd." The Y. M. C. A. 
man led the way to the six feet square hole in the 
ground which he called his billet, and there the medical 
staff officer explained his needs. "There's a stunt on 
in a few days," he said. "You may have guessed that. 
What can you do to help us ? You know the pressure 
under which the R. A. M. C. will be working. It'll be 
a big job dressing all the casualties there's likely to be; 
but we'll manage that bit. What we want is a hand in 
the feeding of them. You understand?" The face of 
the secretary glowed with excitement. "I'll do any 
mortal thing I can," he answered eagerly. "There'll be 
nothing doing here once the show starts, so I'll shut 
down, and bring my whole stock over to your dressing 
station and my staff too. We can feed several hundred 
if you'll let us." "What about the cost of the grub?" 
"Not a word about cost, sir! You're welcome to it 



SIDE LINES OF THE RED TRIANGLE 151 

free, gratis and for nothing, with all the pleasure in the 
world." "Thanks awfully," said the D. A. D. M. S. 
"That's just what I wanted you to offer, and I thought 
you would; your folks have helped us so often before." 
"Jolly good job," mused the Y. M. C. A. man, "that 
I have kept hidden those extra cases of chocolates and 
sweet biscuits. I thought there might be something of 
this sort coming off." 

Ere the grey dawn of a certain morning brought the 
nerve racking inferno of barrage and counter-barrage, 
the entire stock of the canteen was installed in the 
larger of the two huts which formed the collecting post. 
Boxes of biscuits, chocolates and cigarettes, with the 
lids knocked off, stood ranged along the wall, ready for 
the tired and hungry guests who would soon appear. 
Outside, in two huge cauldrons, gallons of strong cocoa 
were brewing merrily. Little was spoken by the men 
standing around, as they waited, nerves a trifle on edge, 
for the breaking of the storm. Suddenly from some- 
where in the rear came the hollow boom of a "heavy," 
the artillery signal and in an instant every battery in 
the area had hurled its first salvo of the barrage. The 
air was full of noise, the rolling roar of the guns at 
"drum fire," the hissing and screaming of flying shells, 
the echoes of far-away explosions. The ground 
trembled as if an earthquake had come. The battle had 
begun. 

The O. C. looked in at the door of the hut. "Every- 
thing ready?" he asked. "Ready and waiting," an- 
swered the Y. M. C. A. man, and very soon in twos 
and threes the wounded began to dribble in, and shortly 



152 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

a steady stream of battered humanity was straggling 
down the road, to halt at the welcome sight of the hut 
with the Red Cross flag by its door. How some of 
them limped over every weary step of the way was be- 
yond understanding. With shattered limbs and 
mangled flesh they came, worn, hungry, thirsty, in 
agony, some stumbling alone, some helped along by less 
grievously injured comrades. In a pitiful throng they 
gathered around the dressing station. 

The quick eyes of the R. A. M. C. sergeant picked 
out the worst cases, and these were hurried into the hut 
where the medical officers plied their sorrowful trade. 
The others sat down and waited their turn with the 
stolid patience of the British soldier when he is 
wounded, and among them worked an Angel of Mercy, 
an elderly angel clad in a flannel shirt and a pair of 
mudstained khaki trousers. Amid the poor jetsam 
of the fight went the Y. M. C. A. man with his mugs 
of cocoa and his biscuits, his chocolate and his cigar- 
ettes, as much a minister of healing as was the surgeon 
with his dressings and anodynes. All the men were 
bitterly cold after their long night of waiting in the old 
front trench : or were dead beat with the nervous strain 
of the action and the pain of their wounds. All were 
hungry. A few no longer cared greatly what more 
might happen to them, for they had reached the limit 
of endurance assuredly, as they had reached the limit of 
suffering. But even to those last the warm drink and 
the food and, perhaps more than anything else, the 
soothing nicotine, brought back life and hope in place 
of apathy and despair. "God bless you, sir," murmured 



SIDE LINES OF THE RED TRIANGLE 153 

a man here and there. But the greater part could find 
no words to speak the gratitude which their eyes told 
forth so clearly. 

This little story is not the tale of one actual incident. 
It is only the stereotype of scenes that have been acted 
and re-acted often and often at the front. Time and 
time again has the Red Triangle come to the aid of the 
Red Cross, placing its workers and its stores unreserv- 
edly at the disposal of the Royal Army Medical Corps. 
When the wounded have been pouring into the dressing 
stations in hundreds, the Y. M. C. A. workers have 
taken over the responsibility of feeding them, and have 
halved the cares of the overwrought R. A. M. C. This 
they have done not once but un-numbered times and 
what gratitude they have earned from their guests! 
The wounded man can scarcely realise what he owes to 
the surgeon who tends his injuries; but he does appre- 
ciate his debt to the man who feeds him and gives him 
the "fag" for which he has been craving. The cocoa 
and cigarettes of the Y. M. C. A. do not figure among 
the medicaments of the Pharmacopoea, yet many a 
"walking wounded" will swear to you that they have 
saved his life — as perhaps they have. 



CHAPTER XV 

THE RED TRIANGLE AND THE WHITE 
ENSIGN 



CHAPTER XV 

THE RED TRIANGLE AND THE WHITE ENSIGN 

"I am sending you a pound note, the first I ever received, as 
I am a poor old woman not able to work. To maintain my home 
I used to take in washing, but now I cannot even do my own, 
but the other Sunday, when I shook hands with one that I used 
to wash for, he put that bit of paper in my hand, but said noth- 
ing, so I received it as part payment for work done over 7 
years ago, and when I looked at it, I thanked God and said I 
would give it to some good cause, and I think I cannot do better 
than help you to get shelter for the soldiers. God bless 'em." 

THIS chapter is written in a "sleeper" at the close 
of a busy day in the North. The day has been made 
a memorable one by a visit to the "Queen Elizabeth" 
as she lay at her moorings in one of our great naval 
bases. She is one of the greatest instruments of war 
in the world, and it was a revelation to enter one of the 
gun turrets of the super-dreadnought, to look through 
the periscope or see the ingenious mechanism that 
moves those mighty guns and lifts into position the 
huge projectile that is capable of delivering death and 
destruction to an enemy many miles away. It was 
more than interesting to visit the wireless rooms where 
ceaseless watch is kept by day and night, and to see the 
wonderful orderliness of everything, and to note that 
everyone on board was ready and their only fear that 
the German Fleet might never be tempted out again. 

157 



158 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

The visit to the "Queen Elizabeth" left one thinking 
of the service the Red Triangle has been able to render 
to the white Ensign. During the war there are not 
as many opportunities for work amongst naval men 
as in peace time, but there is all the more need that 
when the men are ashore everything that is possible 
should be done for them. The Scottish National Coun- 
cil have up-to-date well-equipped hostels and recreation 
rooms in several naval centres, and those at Edinburgh 
and Glasgow are often thronged with bluejackets. 
South of the border there are many fine hostels and 
recreation rooms for sailors, and in scores of centres 
in England, Wales and Ireland the Red Triangle is 
catering successfully for the needs of our bluejackets. 
The biggest crowd of all is to be found in the quarters 
occupied by the Y. M. C. A. at the Crystal Palace, 
where thousands of men every day use the Y. M. C. A. 
as their club and find in it their home. We shall never 
know all we owe to our splendid Navy, and that debt 
can never be fully paid. At the close of the war we 
are planning to erect permanent hostels and institutes 
for sailors in several naval bases at home and in some 
of the great foreign stations. Much appreciated war 
work for sailors is being carried on now at Brindisi 
and Taranto for the men of the drifters employed on 
minesweeping in the Mediterranean, also at Malta, 
Mudros and other centres overseas. 

A demand for a Y. M. C. A. on a battleship came 
from the men of H. M. S. "Conqueror," and it has 
been found most helpful. 

Many isolated naval stations round the British coast 



THE WHITE ENSIGN 159 

are supplied with cabinets, each one containing a 
gramophone, a library, a supply of writing materials, 
and games. For obvious reasons it would be impru- 
dent whilst the war is on to indicate the centres by 
name in which the Red Triangle is serving the men 
of the Navy, but there will be a great story to tell when 
the war is over. 






CHAPTER XVI 
THE RELIGION OF THE RED TRIANGLE 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE RELIGION OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

"The Y. M. C. A. has been one of the really great things which 
have come into their own in this world crisis. It has been a 
Hindenburg Line of the Christian faith." — Dr. Michael Sadler, 
V ice-Chancellor of Leeds University. 

THE Y. M. C. A. is not in camp as a rival to the 
ordinary Church organisations, nor yet to supplant or 
in any conceivable way to undermine the influence of 
the Chaplains. Its large and commodious huts and 
tents have been used in thousands of camps for the 
official Church Parade services, and in many cases 
there has been no other suitable room available. We 
have counted it a privilege on Sunday mornings to 
place our equipment unreservedly at the disposal of all 
the official Chaplains who desired to use it. We have 
welcomed the opportunity of assisting the great and 
important work the Chaplains are doing for the men 
of His Majesty's Forces, for the Y. M. C. A. is itself 
a wing of the great Christian army, and has sometimes 
been described as the Church in action. Apart from 
the support in men and money it has received from 
members of the Churches, the war work of the Red 
Triangle would have been impossible. The Y. M. C. A. 
is not a Church and will never become one. It adminis- 
ters no sacraments, its membership is confined to one 

163 



164 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

sex; it discourages in all its branches the holding of 
meetings that clash with those of the Churches, and in 
every possible way each member unattached is encour- 
aged to join the Church of his choice. 

In the course of a striking letter to "The Challenge" 
of July 12th, 1918, a correspondent said: "We turn 
for an example to the Y. M. C. A. Conceal the un- 
pleasant truth how we may, the outstanding religious 
performance of this war in the eyes of the public at 
large has not been the daily services in Church — not 
even the Holy Communion — but the work done in 
the Y. M. C. A. huts. It is along those lines that we 
must travel if we are to win the world. For the 
medisevally-minded, for the intellectually timid, there 
is always Rome. But it is not by those that the new 
England will be built, and it is the new England we 
must save for Christ." 

Another writer to the same Anglican journal said 
it had been stated that "after the war there would be 
a holy Roman Church and a holy Y. M. C. A., but no 
more Church of England." The fact of the matter is 
the Y. M. C. A. is not making the work of the 
Churches unnecessary, but rather it is giving the ordi- 
nary man a new conception of what Christianity really 
is, and is thus helping to interpret the Churches to the 
masses, and is acting as a bridge or a communication 
trench between the organised forces of Christianity in 
the front line, so to speak, and the great masses away 
back in reserve on which they desire to draw. Some 
people have spoken sneeringly of "canteen religion," 
the soldier never does — and why should he? There 



RELIGION OF THE RED TRIANGLE 165 

is nothing new about it, for it is as old as the early 
days of Christianity, only the gospel of the "cup of 
cold water" has been adapted to the needs of modern 
warfare, so that the man in the firing line knows it 
from experience as the gospel of the "cup of hot 
coffee." Straggling back to a clearing station, 
wounded, plastered with mud, and racked with pain, 
the most eloquent of sermons would not help him, but 
a hot drink, a few biscuits or even a cigarette, if given 
in the name of the Master may put new heart and life 
into him, and give him fresh courage for the way. 
The Churches realise this and have given us of their 
best as far as helpers are concerned. 

We have a vivid recollection of visiting the big 
Y. M. C. A. hut in the Cavalry Camp at Rouen in 
191 5. It was the ordinary week-night service and 
more than six hundred men were present. A famous 
Scottish preacher had conducted the service, and at 
the close we chatted with him for a few minutes in 
the quiet room. "Before I came out to France," said 
he, "I knew you had a great opportunity. Now I know 
that the greatest spiritual opportunity in history rests 
on your shoulders — is with the Y. M. C. A." And yet 
there is a way of doing spiritual work that would 
make all spiritual work in camp absolutely impossible. 
We remember visiting a big hut one day — it did not 
sport the Red Triangle, but was beautifully furnished. 
Over the door was a bold device, "A Home from 
Home! Welcome!" On entering, the first thing 
one saw was the text, "Behold your sins will find you 
out!" And a few yards further on, "The wages of 



166 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

sin is death." "No smoking !" was another notice, and 
yet another, "This hut will be closed every evening 
from seven to eight for a gospel service.' ' Religion 
to appeal to the soldier must be natural and not forced, 
and must be free from controversy and unreality. The 
British soldier hates a sham and instinctively classes 
the hypocrite with the Hun. He may not understand 
our Shibboleths; he has no use for our controversies, 
but he can and does understand the life of the Master, 
when he sees the beauty of that life reflected in some 
humble follower of His, who day by day is risking his 
life at the front that he may supply a cup of cocoa to 
a wounded soldier, or who is slaving behind a Y. M. 
C. A. refreshment counter at home and doing uncon- 
genial work it may be — for the love of Christ. 

* Jjt Jj« 

When it was decided to send the Indian troops to 
France, the Y. M. C. A. offered its services to the In- 
dian Government. The offer was refused. It was felt 
that if it became known in India that a Christian Asso- 
ciation was at work amongst the Indians at the front, 
there would be mutiny. At last, however, permission 
was given to supply recreation marquees for the use 
of the Indian Army in France, but only on condition 
that there should be no proselytising, no preaching, no 
prayers, no hymn singing, no testaments or Bibles 
given and no tracts. The Y. M. C. A. accepted the 
conditions, and though some of its friends felt it meant 
lowering the flag, it has loyally kept its promise, and 
most people realise to-day that this was one of the 
greatest pieces of Christian strategy of our times. A 



RELIGION OF THE RED TRIANGLE 167 

visit to one of the Red Triangle huts or tents in an 
Indian camp is a revelation. You hear the Moham- 
medan call to prayer, see the tiny mosque, and realise 
in how many and varied ways it is possible for the 
Y. M. C. A. to be of service to these brave men of 
another faith. A Professor reported at one of the 
big base camps as a worker. He had come to lecture 
to the troops and when asked by the leader as to his 
subjects replied, "Sanscrit and Arabic." The leader 
wondered how on earth he could make use of a man, 
as a lecturer to British Tommies, who only lectured 
on these two obscure and difficult topics. The Pro- 
fessor found his niche, however, teaching the Moham- 
medan priest to read his Koran — the leader comment- 
ing — "The more he knows it, the less he will trust it." 
It is interesting to note how well these Indian heroes 
get on with our own Tommies. They play their games 
and sometimes sing their songs. When "Tipperary" 
was all the rage the Indians had their own version of 
the chorus, which they sang with great enthusiasm. It 
ran thus: 

"Bura dur hai Tipperary, 
Bura dur hai kouch ho, 
Bura dur hai Tipperary, 

Sukipas powncheniko, 
Ram, Ram, Piccadilly, 
Salam Leicester Square. 
Bura, Bura dur hai Tipperary, 

Likem dil hoa pus ghai." 

On one occasion the secretary of an important base 
said he had arranged a new stunt for us that evening — 



168 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

the formal opening of a hut in the Indian Cavalry 
Hospital Camp. We arrived to find the hut crowded 
and a great banquet arranged in our honour. Nothing 
need be said as to the banquet or its disastrous results 
as far as we were concerned! The Indians enjoyed it, 
and that was the important thing. Before the banquet 
we had the privilege of greeting the men and welcom- 
ing them to the Y. M. C. A., and after we had finished 
the leading Mohammedan in the camp mounted the 
platform and gave a great oration in honour of the 
Christian association. He was followed by the lead- 
ing Brahmin and he in turn by the senior Sikh, all 
speaking in most cordial terms of the Y. M. C. A. In 
the midst of the orations, a stately Indian advanced 
solemnly and placed a garland of flowers round my 
neck. Thrice this garlanding process was repeated on 
different occasions, lovely roses and sweet peas, and it 
was a great and much appreciated honour, though it 
made one feel a trifle foolish at the time. After the 
banquet we proceeded to the adjoining recreation tent, 
and it was an inspiration to see it crammed from end 
to end with men of many religions and different races, 
all happy and contented and all usefully employed. On 
the platform a "budginee" or Indian concert was pro- 
ceeding; a crowd of men at the tables were learning to 
write; another crowd receiving a lesson in English; 
a large group looking at pictures and illustrated maga- 
zines, whilst others were playing games or listening 
enraptured to the strains of the Indian records on the 
gramophone. The C. O. who took us round said that 
when the men came to France not one of them could 



RELIGION OF THE RED TRIANGLE 169 

even sign his name to his pay book, they all had to do 
it by means of thumb-prints. "To-day," said he, 
"every man can sign his name and many can write an 
intelligent letter, and they have learned everything in 
the Y. M. C. A." A few days previously an Indian 
of some rank, stood with folded arms, his back against 
the wall, in that very tent. He said nothing, but 
took in everything, and when the marquee closed for 
the night and the dusky hero warriors retired to 
their tents, he spoke to the secretary in charge. "I 
have watched you men," said he, "you are not paid 
by the Government, you come when you like and you 
go when you like. There is only one religion in the 
world that would send its servants to do what you are 
doing — to serve and not to proselytise. When this 
war is over and we return to India, I want you to 
send one of your men to my village. My people are 
all Hindus, but they will do what I tell them. I have 
been watching you carefully, and I have come to the 
conclusion that Christianity will fit the East as it can 
never fit the West." One of the lessons of the Red 
Triangle is that you can never win men by antagonis- 
ing them, or by speaking disrespectfully of the things 
they hold dear. Love must ever be. the conqueror, and 
the love of all loves is the love of God revealed in His 

Son, Jesus Christ. 

* # # 

Our Jewish friends were surprised and delighted in 
the dark days at the close of 19 14 to find that the 
doors of the Y. M. C. A. were thrown widely open 
to their padres, who could gather in soldiers of their 



170 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

community to worship God in their own way in the 
huts of the Red Triangle. They have not been slow 
to show their appreciation — and a number of Y. M. C. 
A. huts have been given officially by Jews; one well- 
known and much used hostel bears the name, "Jew^n 
Y. M. C. A.," and Jewish Padres will go to any trouble 
or inconvenience to help our work at home or overseas. 
No Red Triangle hut can be used for proselytising by 
Catholic, Protestant, Moslem, or Jew — that goes with- 
out saying — but any official chaplain is welcome to 
the use of our huts for instructing his own people 
in their own faith. 

A striking article recently appeared in a Catholic 
journal, from which we cull the following paragraphs, 
expressing as they do another point of view : 

"'R. C,' 'C. of E.,' 'Y. M. C. A.'— these three 
are the religions of the Front. The drumhead service, 
whilst nominally 'C. of E.,' is, of course, more a mili- 
tary parade than a religious function. It is not without 
a certain amount of picturesque Army ceremonial, but 
to the Catholic soldier, as a Catholic, the spectacle is 
an uninteresting one. The Y. M. C. A., too, I think, 
would not claim to be a religion. It is, perhaps, a reli- 
gious institution ; a kind of spiritual ration-dump. Its 
huts, even during a cinema show, and at the counters 
where they sell Woodbines and chocolates, have a 
Christianised atmosphere. No soldier fears to be 
thought 'too good' through attending a Y. M. C. A. 
service. That is, perhaps, where its undoubtedly great 
influence comes in. It gives the impression, one sup- 
poses to these soldiers, that here they have what the 
P. S. A. fraternity call 'a man's religion for men.' It 
caters for the frequent English soul which (perhaps in 



RELIGION OF THE RED TRIANGLE 171 

the Charity of God) finds a path to Heaven in the 
singing of second-rate hymns on Sunday evening; in 
the constant repetition of 'Abide with Me,' and 'O 
God, our help in ages past.' It is difficult to say if the 
influence of the Y. M. C. A. is much responsible for 
the remarkably even, and (considering all things) 
somewhat high moral code of the Army out here. 
Rather, perhaps (Deo gratias) it is an English heritage 
from the past. Most emphatically one cannot help 
being struck by the excellent moral lives that many of 
these men live, when all things are considered. Of 
course, to a large extent, there is the lack of occasions 
of sin. Drunkenness, most possibly, is rare because 
the authorities have greatly restricted, and wisely, the 
hours of drinking, and the beer, etc., available, even 
if taken in large quantities, is rarely intoxicating. 
Frankly, it appears that the good influence of the 
Y. M. C. A. is derived from the temporal comforts and 
conveniences it offers to the much-tried B. E. F. men. 
I stood outside a Y. M. C. A. building one night, in the 
worst of weather, weather as foul as it can be in 
France in war time. Three rain-sodden Canadian 
infantry men trudged along towards the place, and 
their ears caught the sound of some execrable piano- 
strumming. 'Holy Hell,' said one, 'there's some music 
there ; come on !' That is the story, in epitome, of the 
Y. M. C. A. In the mercy of God, it is a good one." 



A young soldier sent to an English paper the follow- 
ing interesting account of a Communion Service held 
in one of our huts at the front : 

"The following Tuesday, just as our company was 
going 'up the line' to the trenches, a Communion serv- 
ice was held in the rest room of the Y. M. C. A. hut. 
I attended it along with nine other men, and the service 



172 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

was conducted by a well-known Scottish Y. M. C. A 1 . 
worker, who at the time was acting as the leader of 
the hut. In that little room we ten men in khaki were 
verily in the presence of the Unseen. I never realised 
Christ to be so near as when we handled the elements. 
For myself I can truly say that in the grey dawn of 
the following morning I went up to meet the enemy 
with a strange peace, and a deep assurance in my soul 
that, come what might, I need fear no evil, knowing 
that He was with me — and so it proved to be. Our 
time in the trenches was the most exciting I have yet 
experienced, but He kept near, and so 'all's well.' " 



CHAPTER XVII 
STORIES OF THE INVERTED TRIANGLE 



CHAPTER XVII 

STORIES OF THE INVERTED TRIANGLE 

The work of the Y. M. C. A. is, to my mind, one of the out- 
standing features of this war. Their efforts, along with other 
agencies working for the highest welfare of the Army, have 
shown a true catholic spirit, and made it easier for our soldiers 
to live a noble, true and clean life. May God's blessing follow 
their increasing influence. — The Chaplain General of the Forces. 

MORE than 500,000 men have signed the War Roll 
pledge of allegiance to our Lord Jesus Christ, which 
has now been formally adopted by the Churches and 
which reads as follows : 

"I hereby pledge my allegiance to the Lord Jesus 
Christ, as my Saviour and King, and by God's help will 
fight His battles for the Victory of His Kingdom." 

Many have no doubt forgotten their promise but for 
many it has meant the beginning of a new life, and to 
thousands of parents the knowledge that the boy, who 
was their all, signed this declaration before making the 
supreme sacrifice, has brought untold comfort. 

Wherever practicable a Quiet Room for prayer and 
Bible study is included in our camp outfit, also a book- 
stall for testaments, pledge cards and religious liter- 
ature. Millions of testaments and gospel portions have 
been distributed free of charge, and realising the diffi- 
culty of obtaining gospel booklets or tracts that appeal 

175 



176 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

to men, a new one from the pen of the General Secre- 
tary was issued each of the first thirty weeks of the 
war. The approved plan has been to have family 
prayers, no matter how brief, as far as practicable in 
every hut, every night, and if this feature of the pro- 
gramme is not popular, the fault is usually to be found 
in the one who leads. 

A casual observer after visiting a Y. M. C. A. hut, 
sometimes comes to the conclusion that the Association 
is doing a great social work but is not much as a reli- 
gious force. It is not difficult to understand that point 
of view. He has seen two or three hundred men 
clamouring at the refreshment counter for coffee, buns 
or cigarettes; the billiard tables have been fully occu- 
pied; hundreds of soldiers were writing letters at the 
tables provided for the purpose, and hundreds joining 
in some rowdy chorus or heartily laughing at a hum- 
ourous song or funny sketch. Where then does the 
spiritual work of the Red Triangle come in? The best 
answer is to quote what has actually happened. 

To the south-west of Salisbury Plain there was be- 
fore the war a tiny village. To-day it is the centre of 
a big camp, which, incidentally contains several Y. M. 
C. A. huts. The leader of No. 4 was talking to the 
Church of England Padre one morning. They were 
warm friends and the Chaplain was frank in his re- 
marks — "I think you are overdoing it," said he, "by 
having prayers in the hut every night. Surely it would 
be better," he added, "if you concentrated on one even- 
ing of the week instead." "I have thought and prayed 
about it," replied the leader, "and it is a matter of prin- 



THE INVERTED TRIANGLE 177 

ciple with me. These dear boys are all going to the 
Front next week, and no matter what the programme 
of the day, I feel we ought to finish at night with a 
public acknowledgment of God." "Very good," re- 
plied the Padre, "if that is your conviction, carry on! 
Take prayers yourself this evening." And he did. He 
was no orator ; he was not a college man, neither was 
he ordained. It was a simple little service and did not 
take more than ten or fifteen minutes from start to 
finish. There was an opening hymn, one of the old 
familiar ones, that took the lads away back to the 
homes of their childhood. A short passage of scrip- 
ture was read, followed by a few straight but sym- 
pathetic words of exhortation and a brief closing 
prayer. That was all, and the same thing no doubt 
took place in hundreds of centres the same night. 
Prayers over and the "King" sung the leader came 
down from the platform where a young Private greeted 
him and shook his hand till it hurt saying, "I want to 
thank you for giving me a new vision of a God I once 
knew." Walking towards the centre of the hall, a 
young subaltern greeted him saying, "I want to thank 
you for that little service; it has been no end of a help 
to me and I should like to give you this for your work" 
— so saying he handed him an envelope, and looking 
inside he found a letter from the lieutenant's mother, 
containing thirty shillings in postal orders to be spent 
by him in camp. The service had helped him and that 
was his thank-offering. The hut cleared, the men re- 
tired for the night to their sleeping quarters. A soli- 
tary soldier lingered by the doorway as if he wanted 



178 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

someone to speak to him. "Goodnight, my lad," said 
the leader, "can I do anything for you?" Instead of 
replying the soldier burst out crying and later said, 
"If you will you can save me from a great crime!" 
"Save you from a crime — whatever do you mean?" 
And then the trooper told his story. There was 
nothing uncommon about it. He and his brother had 
made love to the same girl, their mother had inter- 
vened, "and," he said, "I have written to my mother 
this evening a letter that no boy should write to his 
mother, and after attending your service to-night, I 
feel I would give all I've got to take back that letter !" 
The letter was found and destroyed and the soldier 
rejoiced in what he regarded as a great deliverance. 
This is no story of an orthodox revival but a chapter 
from real life, a story of the kind of thing that may 
be taking place hundreds of times any week. 
* * * 
In the early days the famous Division as- 
sembled in one of the great camps near Winchester. 
Regiments and units were there from India, South 
Africa — from all parts of the world. Rain came down 
in torrents and the mud was appalling. The huge Red 
Triangle tents were crowded from morning till night 
and the devoted workers, all too few in number, had 
neither time nor strength for religious work in the ordi- 
nary acceptance of the term. They could have limited 
their canteen work and closed the refreshment counter 
excepting for a few hours daily. That would have 
been the easier plan and would have given them the 
opportunity of devoting themselves to concerts and 



THE INVERTED TRIANGLE 179 

meetings in the evenings. The alternative would have 
been to spend and be spent in serving the material 
needs of the men, trusting that God would use the at- 
mosphere of the place and the personal contact of the 
workers to influence the men and thus make up for 
their inability to do much in the meeting line. They 
chose the latter plan, and the leader retiring for the 
night would throw himself on his bed and sometimes 
fall asleep without undressing. At times suffering 
from the re-action, he would ask himself the question, 
"Is it worth while? Am I doing the right thing?" 
The answer came the night before the men left for the 
front. It had been a record day, every moment had 
been crowded and they had sold out. The majority had 
retired for the night; a few remained to tidy up the 
tents. This task accomplished, a group of soldiers 
gathered round the leader and the talk soon turned 
quite naturally to some of the deepest problems of life. 
Presently a stalwart young Gordon Highlander told of 
his home in far away Scotland, of his farewell to his 
dear old mother before he went out to India, and of the 
promise he made her — the promise he had not kept — to 
read his Bible every day, to lead a pure clean life and 
to keep clear of drink. The atmosphere of that 
crowded Y. M. C. A. tent had brought it all back to 
him and, unknown to the staff, he had renewed his 
vows to God and his mother. In making his confes- 
sion he was overcome with emotion and throwing his 
arms round the leader's neck he sobbed out the story of 
his repentance. There is no more moving sight than 
the anguish of a strong man, probably no sight that 



180 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

gives more joy in Heaven than the tears that tell of 

the return of the one that had been lost. 
* * * 

A young Canadian officer who had lost a leg and an 
arm wrote to me before sailing to Montreal from 
Bristol in May, 1918, and this is what he said: "I 
would like to tell you how much we have appreciated 
the Y. M. C. A. I came over with the first batch of 
Canadians; we were drafted to Larkhill, Salisbury 
Plain. After leaving my home — a godly home — I fell 
into the hands of very ungodly people and sank very, 
very deep in. I was lying on the roadside much the 
worse for drink. I was down and couldn't get up; 
comrades and everyone seemed to have left me. I saw 
one of your cars rush by. When it had passed about 
a hundred yards, out jumped a Y. M. C. A. man. He 
came back to me and said, 'Come along, my friend, I 
will take you to your hut.' I looked at him and said, 
'I've sunk too low for a man like you to touch me.' 
He helped me up, took me to my hut and said, 'This 
is my work in the Y. M. C. A., to help the helpless. 
Come in and have a cup of tea with me to-morrow.' 
Shamefaced, I went the next day. He was there to 
greet me; he talked and prayed with me but I saw no 
light until one night in the trenches I thought I heard 
this man praying, and I heard it again and again, and 
had no rest till I laid my sins at the foot of the Cross. 
Although I am going home with a leg and an arm off 
I have a clean heart washed in the Blood of the Lamb. 
I have visited many huts but that was the only man 
who spoke to me personally about my sinful condition. 



THE INVERTED TRIANGLE 181 

Your leaders can do much if they will. God bless the 
work and the workers! I will enclose this leader's 
card so that you can let him know his prayers followed 
me up to the trenches. God bless him !" 

Cecil Thompson, the leader referred to, never saw 
this letter. Long before it was written he had "gone 
west," had passed to his reward, one of the Red Tri- 
angle martyrs of Salisbury Plain. But he "shall in no 
wise lose his reward," for it is work like this that pays, 
and the spirit of Cecil Thompson lives on in the lives 
of those who have been won, not by his eloquence but 
by the personal contact of a man who had yielded him- 
self to become a channel for the Divine blessing. 
* * # 

The greatest romance of the Red Triangle is the 
romance of its religious work. War always seems to 
have one of two effects upon the lives of those who par- 
ticipate in it — either it hardens a man and makes him 
callous or else it purifies and ennobles him. The 
Chaplains, the Churches, the Y. M. C. A., the Church 
Army, the C. E. T. S., the Salvation Army, and count- 
less other organisations and individuals are always at 
work, trying to counteract the power of the down- 
ward pull. It was our youngest General, the late Brig. 
Gen. R. B. Bradford, V.C., M.C., who addressed to his 
men in France, shortly before his death, the following 
stirring words: "I am going to ask you to put your 
implicit trust and confidence in me, to look upon me 
not only as your Brigadier, but as your friend. By the 
help of God I will try and lead you to the best of my 
ability and remember your interests are my interests. 



182 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

As you all know a few days from now we are going to 
attack; your powers of endurance are going to be 
tested. They must not fail you. Above all, pray ; "more 
things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams 
of." It is God alone Who can give us the victory, and 

bring us through this battle safely." 

* * * 

It is said that General Smuts' attention was drawn 
to Herbert Schmalz's picture "The Silent Witness" in 
the Royal Academy. It showed the interior of a 
church in Flanders, and many wearied and wounded 
French soldiers huddled together on the floor. A sol- 
dier with a wounded arm was awakened by the pain 
and raising himself on his unwounded arm saw the 
figure of the Christ, the silent witness of his suffer- 
ing and agony. Looking long and earnestly at the pic- 
ture, it is said the famous Boer General quietly re- 
marked, "Many a man has seen that vision in this war." 

* * * 

When visiting Bailleul in 19 17 the following story 
was told me by a distinguished Padre serving with the 
Y. M. C. A. It concerned a Casualty Clearing Sta- 
tion on the outskirts of the town. A gentleman ranker 
was brought in terribly wounded. His shoulder had 
been shattered by shrapnel and gas gangrene had set 
in. A constant and welcome visitor was the Senior 
Chaplain. One day he called and said cheerily, "Well, 
old fellow, how goes it to-day?" "Thanks, Padre," 
was the reply, "the pain is not quite so bad to-day, but, 
Padre," he added earnestly, stroking his wounded arm, 
"I wish you would persuade them to take this away." 



THE INVERTED TRIANGLE 183 

"Don't talk like that," said the Chaplain, "you'll want 
to use that old arm for many a year to come!" "No, 
Padre," he replied with conviction, "I shall never use 
it again; I'm going west!" A moment later he was 
seized with a frightful paroxysm of pain and with a 

torrent of oaths shrieked out, "Why the b h 

can't they take this arm away!" He fell back ex- 
hausted, but an instant later sat bolt upright and with 
arms held out looked intently towards the roof of the 
hut. His face became radiant, and there was no trace 
of pain. In an ecstatic voice he cried out, "Jesus! 
Jesus ! Jesus !" and fell back dead. Thank God that's 
possible, and even in the hour of death, the blasphemer 
may receive forgiveness and the knowledge of salva- 
tion, for 

"The ways of men are narrow, 
But the gates of Heaven are wide." 

* * 5j« 

A lady worker in the Isle of Wight felt unaccount- 
ably drawn to a young soldier who had vowed he would 
never enter the Y. M. C. A. again, because he ob- 
jected to evening prayers. Little by little she won his 
confidence until the night before he left for France 
with a draft, he came in to say goodbye, and told 
her she was the first person to speak to him about 
sacred things, adding — "I may do some day but at 
present I cannot see things as you do." He went to 
France followed by her prayers, and in due course took 
part in the famous attack on Cambrai. Nothing was 
heard of him for weeks, and his friends were forced 



184 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

to the conclusion that he was numbered amongst the 
dead. Time passed by, until one morning the lady of 
the Red Triangle received a letter from him, written 
from a German Prisoner of War camp. It was a com- 
monplace letter and told of the great fight, of his 
capture and internment, and so forth, but the conclud- 
ing words were the ones she wanted — "You will be 

glad to know I can see things as you do now." 

* * * 

We were speaking at the opening of a hut near 
Portsmouth. At the close of the ceremony a dear little 
old widow lady sitting in the front row, told us of her 
own boy. He was a young officer serving in France 
and was called out late one night to help repel a sudden 
attack by the enemy. Shot down by machine gun fire, 
a brother officer stooped to help him, but he cried, 

"Lead on, lead forward, I go to my God !" 

* * * 

A day later another Y. M. C. A. lady in one of the 
Hospital huts told us the story of her nephew. He, too, 
was a young officer and was called out to assist in re- 
pelling a sudden attack by the Huns. Our men had 
scarcely reached No Man's Land when the enemy 
turned on their dreadful gas. One of the first to be 
overcome by its fumes was the sergeant of his platoon. 
Regardless of the risk he ran, that young officer stuck 
to his disabled sergeant until help arrived. Not realis- 
ing that he had himself become affected by the noxious 
fumes, he tried to stagger to his feet, but fell back- 
wards into a shell-hole and in falling broke his neck. 
The sad news was conveyed to his people in the North 



THE INVERTED TRIANGLE 185 

of England, and the night they received it his father 
and mother sat alone in the quiet of their home. 
Presently the mother spoke — "I feel," said she, "that 
the only thing that would console me in my loss would 
be to know that the man for whom my boy died was a 
good man." It was only a week later that the sergeant 
for whom the young officer died, came to that home 
and when he came he was hopelessly intoxicated. The 
parents quickly ascertained that it was not the case of 
a man having been overcome by sudden temptation; 
they could have forgiven that, but he was an utter 
waster, about as bad as a man could be. When he had 
left the house those two sat once again in the silence 
of their home and it was the mother who spoke, slowly 
and quietly, "It almost breaks my heart to know my 
boy gave his precious life for a worthless life like that." 
And yet, what of the young officer himself? Did he 
know the type of man it was for whom he was about 
to make the supreme sacrifice? Of course, he knew; 
he was in his own platoon, and yet, knowing, he will- 
ingly gave his life in an attempt to save him. One 
cannot recall this story without thinking of those 
wonderful words : "For scarcely for a righteous man 
will one die; yet peradventure for a good man some 
would even dare to die, but God commendeth His Love 
towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ 

died for us." 

* * * 

In a far away corner of the Harfleur Valley the 
Y. M. C. A. has one of its finest equipments. The 
leader was a great man in every sense of the word, and 



186 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

every night he organised a sing-song for the troops, 
which invariably went with a swing. He seemed to 
know by instinct when to strike right in and what to 
say. A night came, however, when he seemed to have 
struck a bad patch, for no one would play, sing or recite. 
The story is told here almost word for word as it was 
first told me by a leading worker home from France, 
who drew a graphic word picture of the hut leader 
pleading from the platform for help which never came. 
The huge hut was crammed with men, and looking at 
the crowd standing at the back he noticed a movement 
amongst them. A trooper detaching himself from the 
crowd slowly elbowed his way to the front. It was 
easy to tell by his unsteady steps that he was under the 
influence of drink. Mounting the platform he turned 
first to the audience and then to the Y. M. C. A. leader 
and cried in a voice that everyone could hear — "What's 
the matter, Boss ? Won't anyone oblige you ? Never 
mind, Padre, if nobody will help you, I will! What 
would you like me to do? I can play, or I can sing, 
or I can recite — or I can pray!" For a moment the 
Secretary did not know what to reply. He was a man 
of experience but had never been placed in a predica- 
ment like that before. To his horror he saw the poor 
drunken trooper stumble to the edge of the platform 
and with hands outstretched call for prayer, and 
there followed one of the strangest prayers ever heard 
in public as the drunkard cried out, "Everlasting God ! 
Everlasting God ! Everlasting God — !" He could get 
no further but broke down and sobbed like a child and 
in his agony cried out, "I had a good mother once; I've 



THE INVERTED TRIANGLE 187 

been a damned fool. May God forgive me!" Could 
God possibly hear and answer a prayer like that? Of 
course He could, and He did! Possibly He would 
rather have even a prayer like that, than the meaning- 
less prayers with which we sometimes mock Him, and 
if any man ever gave evidence of his conversion to 
God it was that trooper. He stayed only four days 
longer in that reinforcement camp in the Harfleur 
Valley, but if he could help it, never for a moment 
would he let our leader out of his sight and in a hun- 
dred ways he helped him with his work. He would go 
methodically and frequently round the hut, gather up 
the dirty mugs, bring them back to the counter and 
help to wash them. He would go down on his hands 
and knees under the tables, pick up scraps of paper and 
cigarette ends and help clean up the floor. Four days 
later he was sent with a detachment up the line ; three 
days later still, with his company, he was ordered "over 
the top," and literally he went into the "Valley of the 
Shadow of Death," but he did not go alone, for there 
went with him One the form of Whom was like unto 
the form of the Son of God!" 

The Y. M. C. A. is a Christian Association, the Red 
Triangle a Christian emblem, and for that very reason 
the freedom of the Association is given to every en- 
listed man. Protestant and Catholic, Anglican, Free 
Churchman, Jew, Hindoo, Mohammedan — men of any 
religion, every religion, and no religion at all, are 
equally welcomed beneath its roof, and no man will 
ever hear unkind or disrespectful things said from a 
Y. M. C. A. platform concerning the faith he holds 



188 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

dear. At the same time we can never forget that the 
greatest need of every man amongst the millions we 
serve in our huts, is that he should have a Friend who 
will never fail him nor forsake him, who will stand 
shoulder to shoulder with him in his fierce fight with 
temptation in camp or city, will be with him in the 
trenches, in the firing line, as he goes over the parapet, 
or even into the dread "Valley of the Shadow," and 
there is only One who can thus meet every need of 
every man, and that One is the strong Son of God, the 
Lord Jesus Christ, the best Friend, the truest Comrade 
we can have. 

We often fall far short of our aim, alas, but the pri- 
mary aim of the Y. M. C. A. always has been, and is, 
to lead men to a saving knowledge of that Friend. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

THE RED TRIANGLE IN THE RECON- 
STRUCTION 



CHAPTER XVIII 

THE RED TRIANGLE IN THE RECONSTRUCTION 

THE question is often asked, "What is going to 
be done with the Y. M. C. A. huts after the war?" 
It is never easy to prophesy with any degree of cer- 
tainty, but there can be little doubt that properly 
handled these huts will be at least as useful after the 
war as they are now. Their furniture, which com- 
prises hundreds of billiard tables, thousands of chairs, 
tables, stoves, ranges, and so forth, is well fitted for 
doing good service after the war. One of these huts 
planted down in the centre of some rural community 
and staffed by voluntary workers, who have purchased 
their experience by downright hard service during the 
war, should be an inestimable boon. It would break 
the monotony of country life; or, being set down in 
an industrial district of a big town or city, would help 
in congenial ways to relieve the tedium of the drab life 
of the workers. 

The immediate problem is that of the discharged 
man. Incidentally his presence in our midst is even 
now helping us to gain that practical acquaintance with 
his needs that will be invaluable in dealing with the 
greater problem of demobilisation. Thousands of men 
are discharged from the Navy and Army every week. 
Many of these for months, it may be for years to come, 

101 



192 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

will not be able to do a good day's work, no matter 
how willing they may be, and it is up to us to help 
them. No one who has seen the conditions under 
which they have been living in Picardy or in Flanders 
can wonder at this and they will need sympathy and 
encouragement on the part of their employers. The 
Y. M. C. A. can supply the human touch that may be 
of the greatest possible service to the Ministries of 
Labour, Pensions, and Reconstruction, and although 
the State itself must take responsibility for the future 
of those who return broken from the war and for their 
dependents, there will still be ample room for volun- 
tary effort without any taint of charity. 

A number of experiments are being tried, all de- 
signed to point the way to future efforts if such ex- 
periments prove successful. The Red Triangle farm 
Colony at Kinson, in Dorset, has been fitted up as a 
sanatorium for the benefit of men discharged from 
the Navy and Army who need sanatorium treatment 
because they are suffering from, or threatened with, 
consumption, and whilst the men are undergoing treat- 
ment they are trained in poultry-farming, horticulture, 
and other outdoor pursuits on plans cordially approved 
by the authorities. 

A Red Triangle poultry farm in Surrey is also run 
entirely for the benefit of discharged men, and a some- 
what larger venture is under way in Suffolk with a 
two-hundred-acre farm and extensive fruit gardens. 
At Portsmouth and other centres hostel accommoda- 
tion is provided for men who on leaving the Navy or 



THE RECONSTRUCTION 193 

Army go through a course of training for civil life. 
Experimental workshops in London are proving a 
great success, discharged soldiers being trained in car- 
pentry, joinery, picture-framing, and the repairing of 
pianos. 

A series of exhibitions dealing with the work of ex- 
soldiers has been successfully inaugurated, and Red 
Triangle employment bureaus have already secured 
situations for more than 20,000 discharged men. 

The biggest opportunity for the Red Triangle will 
come with the declaration of peace. "After the war" 
for tens of thousands of men has commenced already, 
and not only during the war but in the reconstruction 
we shall need the help of every worker who is prepared 
heart and soul to work out the full programme of the 
Red Triangle for Britain's sake and for the sake of the 
Kingdom of God. 

We would go further than that and say that the new 
situation brought about by the drawing together of 
Britain and America through the war opens up great 
possibilities for the future. Britain and America 
working separately can do much in the days of the re- 
construction, but working together they can do in- 
finitely more. 

A League of Nations is much to be desired, but it is 
doubtful if such a League can be successful in the long 
run unless within it there is another league — a league 
of the forces working for righteousness. Through the 
magnitude and efficiency of its war work, the Associa- 
tion has earned the confidence and respect of the man- 
hood of the two great Anglo-Saxon countries ; of the 



194 THE ROMANCE OF THE RED TRIANGLE 

churches and, it is not too much to say, of the two peo- 
ples. The machinery is ready to hand, and even if it 
were not a case of urgency, it would take a long time to 
bring into existence any other agency to do this work, 
and indeed it is doubtful if any other agency could 
work on such broad lines or command such universal 
support as the Y. M. C. A. In the reconstruction the 
Association should act as a clearing house for the 
churches, and if only we can see things in their right 
perspective, can sink our differences and work together 
for the common good, it will mean much for the future 
of civilisation. This is the decisive hour, especially 
for the countries that have worked and fought with us 
during the war. Let this chance slip and it may never 
come again. 

The Red Triangle must cater for the discharged man 
as efficiently as it has done for men in uniform, and it 
must maintain its reputation as the soldier's friend. 
He must be encouraged to come to it when he is in per- 
plexity or difficulty of any kind. It must act as a com- 
munication trench between the men and the churches, 
and it may even be a means of uniting capital and 
labour in altruistic service. It may take an important 
part in helping the countries that have been devastated 
by the war — in fact there is no end to the possibilities 
of the future. 

And lest we forget the great deliverance God has 
wrought and the great lessons that have come to us 
through the horror, the suffering and the desolation of 
the war, we should like to see in Jerusalem, in Paris, 
Brussels, Antwerp, Belgrade, Bagdad, in Russia, 



THE RECONSTRUCTION m 

Roumania, Italy, India and other cities and countries 
that have suffered with us in the war, well equipped 
Y. M. C. A. buildings erected to the glory of God and 
to the memory of the glorious men of the allied nations, 
who have made the supreme sacrifice in the sacred 
cause of liberty. Can one doubt for a moment that a 
project of this kind would receive the requisite support 
if laid before the people of Britain and America, and 
the great Dominions that have done so much for Eng- 
land's sake? 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: J|Jfl 2001 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 
111 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724) 779-2111 



